I (that is, host Dave Levine) will address the major potential disclosure questions here. I choose to quote James Grimmelmann, who in turn cites Larry Lessig for the following: Anything I say represents the views of at most one person: me.
Income and Costs
No one pays me for Hearsay Culture and I earn no income from it; I pay no one to be involved in any way with Hearsay Culture. I accept no advertising, commissions, link exchanges or sponsorships; I do not pay for any advertising. I do the show on a volunteer basis because it’s fun, and I find it personally rewarding as part of my public responsibility as an educator (not to mention, I learn a lot by reading the work of and talking to interesting and smart people in my areas of professional interest). I offer all content (as much as is possible) by way of a Creative Commons license.
I am a full-time professor at Elon University School of Law (ESL) in Greensboro, North Carolina. ESL pays my salary. I have no other income.
I am also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School. CIS doesn’t pay me. They used to, when I was a Resident Fellow.
I am also a Visiting Fellow at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. They don’t pay me either.
KZSU-FM (Stanford University), the radio home of Hearsay Culture, does not pay me to do the show or reimburse costs. Doing the show is strictly voluntary. KZSU provides staff to make sure that the show airs at it’s designated time on the KZSU schedule.
CIS’ outstanding staff, particularly Elaine Adolfo, posts and hosts the podcast on CIS’ server and CIS’ iTunes page. Neither Stanford nor iTunes compensate me for Hearsay Culture.
Brandon Frye and William Moner redesigned the Hearsay Culture website in the first few months of 2015, gratis.
I pay the costs for hosting hearsayculture.com by DreamHost. I also bought and own the recording equipment currently used for the show.
Equipment
Audio geeks: the main equipment is an Alesis Multimix 8 USB mixer, a Shure SM-58 microphone, and a MXL 990 microphone. I also use Skype for the conversations. I am the recording engineer and I use Audacity recording software.On the road I use a Zoom H4N recorder. As a general matter, I use both free and proprietary software as needed.
Guests
I don’t pay guests to be on the show. I am the originator of all questions asked of guests (of course, I welcome input from others). No one tells me what to ask, who to invite on the show, and so forth.
About CIS
From the CIS webpage, where you can learn all about CIS and the people affiliated with it: “The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest technology law and policy program at Stanford Law School and a part of Law, Science and Technology Program at Stanford Law School. The CIS brings together scholars, academics, legislators, students, programmers, security researchers, and scientists to study the interaction of new technologies and the law and to examine how the synergy between the two can either promote or harm public goods like free speech, privacy, public commons, diversity, and scientific inquiry. The CIS strives as well to improve both technology and law, encouraging decision makers to design both as a means to further democratic values.”
CIS’ Founder was Prof. Lawrence Lessig.
About ESL
And here’s more about my current employer, Elon University School of Law, where I am an Associate Professor teaching IP, trade secrets, cyberlaw, and contracts.