The Virginia Journal of Law & Technology hosted a symposium exploring the contours of rights related to computer autonomy on February 19, 2005.
As planned, the event included three panel discussions as well as a luncheon and a keynote speaker.
Symposium Photos
Digital Rights Management: Would Jefferson Be a File Sharer?
Dana Blankenhorn (Technology Journalist and Consultant) presented a concise history of the Copyright Wars since 1997 – before the DMCA was passed – and discussed how the Constitutional intent of the founders, especially Thomas Jefferson, has been turned on its head.
Alan Davidson (Center for Democracy and Technology) discussed MGM v. Grokster, a pending Supreme Court case involving file sharing services, and the legislative debate over secondary liability and technology mandates.
Jacqueline Lipton (Case Western Reserve University School of Law) compared the approaches to DRM in the copyright laws of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States and focused on how the respective legislatures have attempted to balance the rights and interests of content holders against the competing interests of private users.
Moderated by Thomas Nachbar (University of Virginia School of Law).
Enforcement: Will It Change What We Do?
Michael Madison (University of Pittsburgh School of Law) discussed the legal implications of social software and will contrast the classic regulatory focus on behavior of the individual with the emergence of software that highlights group activity online.
Geraldine Moohr (University of Houston Law Center) examined the use of criminal law to control and regulate rights-infringing activities, especially noncommercial, personal-use infringement.
Moderated by Lillian BeVier (University of Virginia School of Law).
Legislation: The Answer to Spyware and Surveillance Technologies?
Derek Bambauer (Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School) discussed how spyware challenges some of the ways in which law typically approaches interaction between computer users and software vendors in terms of consent and functionality.
Susan Crawford (Cardozo School of Law) examined the limitations of federal and state legislative approaches to spyware and argued that user tools are the only solution.
Chris Hoofnagle (Electronic Privacy Information Center) evaluated how DRM technologies threaten to fundamentally alter the level of privacy protection United States law and tradition currently provide to all media consumers and argued that if left unchecked, the development and implementation of DRM could lead to a “surveillance” society.
Moderated by Glen Robinson (University of Virginia School of Law).
Special thanks to McDermott Will & Emery LLP and White & Case LLP for their sponsorship.
Please email vjolt@vjolt.net for more information.