IP: Lessig-Valenti Debate and ICANN Candidate Forum

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>
>Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 07:39:53 -0400
>To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>From: Wendy Seltzer <wendy@seltzer.com>
>Subject: Lessig-Valenti Debate and ICANN Candidate Forum
>
>I thought IPers might be interested in these events from the Berkman Center
>for Internet & Society: A debate between Larry Lessig and Jack Valenti,
>live and webcast this Sunday.
>
> >October 1, 2000 at 7:00 p.m. EDT
>"The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate"
>Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School, Cambridge and online at
><http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/futureofip>
>
>Then on Monday, the Berkman Center and Internet Democracy Project will host
>the seven North-American candidates for At-Large election to the ICANN
>board for an informal dialogue followed by a formal candidate debate. These
>events will also be webcast with remote participation.
>
> >October 2, 2000
>"A Dialogue with the Candidates," 4:20-6:00 p.m. EDT
>Moderated by Jonathan Zittrain, Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law 
>School.
>
>"ICANN North American Candidate Forum," 7:30-9:30 p.m. EDT
>Moderated by Jean-Claude Guedon, University of Montreal
>Panel to include Declan McCullagh, Washington Bureau Chief, Wired News, and
>Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe
>
>  For more information, including how to register to attend or view the live
>webcast, visit the "A Day with the ICANN  North American Candidates" 
>website at
>  <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/candidateforum>.
>
>--Wendy
>
>***************************
>
>Jack Valenti and Lawrence Lessig to Meet at Harvard to Debate
>the Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet
>
>Cambridge, MA - In the ideological war being fought over rights
>to digital content in the age of the global Internet, Motion Picture
>Association of America head Jack Valenti and renowned cyberlaw
>expert Lawrence Lessig represent its most powerful conflicting
>forces. On October 1, 2000 at 7:00p.m. EDT, Harvard Law School's
>Berkman Center for Internet & Society will present a debate
>between Valenti and Lessig on the future of intellectual property
>online--the subject of increasing controversy in the wake of
>emerging technologies that allow for the easy sharing of digital
>content among consumers, and recent decisions in judicial cases
>testing the propriety of such technologies. Free and open to
>the public, "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet:
>A Debate" takes place in the historic Ames Courtroom in Austin
>Hall on the Harvard Law School campus, and will be webcast live
>to an international audience.
>
>Jack Valenti has served as head of the MPAA since 1966.  He
>made headlines this year speaking out on behalf of the established
>film and music industries against those who, in his view, use the
>Internet to steal others' intellectual property. Valenti has called the
>defense of such property key to America's continuing economic
>prosperity, and the MPAA has joined other publishers in an aggressive
>legal battle to protect (and some would say, extend) intellectual property
>rights in this era of digital media and Internet technology. The list of
>industry targets--Napster, iCraveTV, 2600 News Magazine in the New
>York DeCSS case, RecordTV.com and Scour--is growing, as is the roster
>of recent legislation intended to enhance the control of copyright owners
>over their works in new media.
>
>Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor and author of the
>highly-acclaimed "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," offers a different
>perspective on possibilities for the digital environment, leading a
>movement to restore the public interest in our popular, legal, and
>technical conceptions of intellectual property. Lessig urges us to treat
>the Constitution's copyright clause as striking a balance between private
>intellectual property and a public intellectual commons, warning that
>should the balance tilt too far in favor of copyright holders, the public
>will risk losing its constitutionally-mandated right to a vibrant public
>domain.
>
>Valenti and Lessig have most recently clashed in the pages of the Industry
>Standard, expressing divergent views of how the Internet should evolve, and
>what the balance of control should be between publishers and readers on-
>and off-line.
>
>"Cheap bandwidth and large hard drives have made it easy to copy and
>disseminate digital content, including content 'ripped' from CDs and DVDs
>without permission of the respective publishers," says Harvard Law School
>professor Jonathan Zittrain, faculty co-director of the Berkman Center and
>moderator of the debate. "How do we define and protect the legitimate
>rights of intellectual property owners without extinguishing fair use?
>This is a debate to explore that question, focusing on shades of gray in
>what is often seen as a black and white issue."
>
>"The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate" is part of
>an ongoing series of online discussions and webcast conferences presented
>by the Berkman Center that are designed to address serious constitutional
>questions now pending in the courts while exploring innovative uses of the
>Internet for educational and public interest purposes. For more
>information, including details on how to register to participate, in person
>or on the Web, please visit the following website:
><http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/futureofip>.
>
>The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research program founded to
>explore the legal, social, and political issues resulting from the
>development of the Internet and its impact on society. Predicated on the
>belief that the best way to understand cyberspace is to actually build out
>into it, the Berkman Center pursues a program of active research that
>integrates the building and use of Internet tools with study of the issues
>the Internet engenders. As part of this active research mission, the
>Berkman Center develops, uses, and freely shares an open software platform
>for online education and deliberative processes, as well as sponsoring
>events--ranging from informal lunches to webcast conferences--to bring its
>diverse network of participants together for substantive debate.
>
>This event is free and open to the public, and will be webcast
>live to an international audience.  Please feel free to forward
>this announcement to friends and colleagues.
>
>---
>Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.com
>Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
>http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html