Stanford Center for Internet and Society

In April of 2006, Wired News editor Kevin Poulsen sued the United States Customs and Border Patrol under the Freedom of Information Act. Poulsen won the case, and yesterday the trial court granted Poulsen $66,000 in attorney's fees.

One of the most challenging problems for national security is predicting and stopping terrorist attacks before they happen. The government proposes that data mining is a useful tool for finding terrorists. By using database technology, statistical analysis and modeling, the government says it can search our email, phone calls, shopping habits, educational records, and find the needle (terrorists) in the haystack (the general population). One has to know a bit about the science and statistics behind data mining to evaluate this claim.

Click here to visit "The Shout", Jennifer Granick's personal blog.

Click here for the Electronic Frontier Foundation's web site.

Today, the Copyright Office issued new rules allowing people to circumvent technological protection measures on their cell phones in order to be able to switch carriers and use the phone on a different network.

Background:

In order to control the distribution and use of their works, copyright owners are increasingly using access and copy protection schemes in their digital works. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) [at 17 USC 1201] prohibits circumvention of these mechanisms, with only a few narrow statutory exemptions. However, the Copyright Office is allowed to issue new exemptions if you can prove that the statute burdens a non-infringing use and that an exemption won't overly harm copyright interests.

The Bay Area Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society invites you to a luncheon panel on:
“Domestic Spying: Illegal or Inevitable?”

featuring:

Goodwin Liu, Professor of Law, Boalt Hall UC Berkeley and Board of Directors, American Constitution Society

Jennifer Stisa Granick, Lecturer in Law and Executive Director of the Center for Internet and Society (CIS), Stanford Law School

12:00 pm
Monday, February 13, 2006
Morrison & Foerster LLP
425 Market Street
San Francisco, CA

The luncheon is $15 for private sector, $10 for nonprofit and students.

1 hour of MCLE will be provided. Thank you to Morrison & Foerster for providing the MCLE credit and location.

Submit your story. We are looking for stories about how cell phone locking is affecting consumers and the public interest. Do you have a story about how locking has interfered with competition between carriers or handset manufacturers, with technological or service innovations and improvements? Have you been unable to use your mobile phones when traveling because your service provider wouldn't allow you to switch to a different network, even temporarily? Have you had to throw away your mobile phone when changing service providers, had trouble finding a used mobile phone to purchase because the used phones would not work with your service provider?

SUMMER INTERNSHIP POSITION WITH STANFORD’S
CENTER FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY

The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School is hiring a Summer Intern to work public interest issues involving technology and the Internet.SUMMER INTERNSHIP POSITION WITH STANFORD’S
CENTER FOR INTERNET AND SOCIETY

The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School is hiring a Summer Intern to work public interest issues involving technology and the Internet.

The Center for Internet and Society is a leading center for the study of the relationship between the public interest, law and technology. CIS was founded by Professor of Law Lawrence Lessig and is headed by Executive Director attorney Jennifer S. Granick, who also teaches the Cyberlaw Clinic.

Clinic student Trevor Dryer, on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit, challenging a legal tactic DirecTV is using in its legal campaign against people who use smart card technology for satellite piracy. The brief argues that this particular legal tactic overreaches and would chill legitimate research. For more on the case, click here.

Today, Jennifer Granick filed comments on behalf of mobile phone customer Robert Pinkerton, and phone recycler and refurbisher The Wireless Alliance asking the Copyright Office to issue an exemption to the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The comments argue that mobile communications providers are using software locks to control customer access to mobile phone operating software embedded inside the devices. These locks prevent customers from using their handsets on a competitor’s network. Customers who want to use their handsets on a different network must circumvent the locking software to access the computer program that allows the phone to operate (mobile firmware).

The Stanford Law School Cyberlaw Clinic and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief yesterday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking judges to uphold a lower court ruling and protect smart card and encryption researchers. DirecTV’s recent litigation campaign threatens legitimate research by seeking much larger damages than they should be entitled to under Federal law. If DirecTV’s position is adopted, individuals could face up to $100,000 in damages for unauthorized smart card use; the Clinic worries that legitimate smart card researchers may be deterred from doing their work out of fear of such large liability.