Stanford Center for Internet and Society

Monday April 17, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 280A
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

DRM strategies for technical copy protection regulate the use of content by imposing “compliance” rules on manufacturers, dictating that devices be designed to chaperone the user. These compliance rules raise concerns for the new balance of copyright being struck by these control mechanisms. But less often discussed are “robustness rules” that accompany them, requiring manufacturers to build their devices to “effectively frustrate” users from investigating the inner workings of the device itself. Not only must the technology regulate its users, it must be inscrutable to them. This aspect of the DRM approach must be examined for its potential implications -- not only for manufacturers of entertainment and information technologies, but for users. I will investigate this concern by asking not what it does to limit users, but how it shapes the very possibility of user agency, the sense or knowledge that one can investigate and manipulate their own tools. Recent work in the sociology of technology offers intellectual tools for this consideration, to ask first what users do with their technologies and why this is important, what it means for users to have and experience agency with their own tools, and what a mandated and enforced change in this sense of agency could mean for the life of cultural technologies.

Note New date

Monday April 10, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 95
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

As people around the world increasingly interact with each other in cyberspace it is inevitable that disputes will arise. If the internet is to become a trusted environment for both commerce and content, individuals and organizations must have access to redress systems to resolve their online disputes. In the face-to-face world we rely on the courts to address disagreements, but courts are not well designed to handle online disputes because judicial systems are usually too tied to geography and jurisdiction. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is a better solution for many online conflicts because it is effective, efficient, and trans-boundary by nature. As an organization pioneering the creation of online marketplaces eBay has long acknowledged the need for effective online redress, and that is why eBay and PayPal have invested heavily in ODR processes and partnerships. The work done by eBay in this area offers a blueprint for how other institutions, especially public institutions, can provide redress systems as they steadily move their operations online.

Monday April 3, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 280A
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

The music, film, book, and software industries enforce their copyrights against pirates. But in the much larger global fashion industry, copyright does not protect most original apparel designs, and design "piracy" is a way of life. Why are the rules about copying seemingly so different in the fashion industry? And why is there so little apparent effort by the industry to change those rules?

Chris Sprigman (Univ. of Virginia School of Law) and Kal Raustiala (UCLA Law School) argue that copying functions as an important element of - and perhaps even a necessary predicate to - the fashion industry's swift cycle of innovation.

Thursday March 23, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 280A
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

In the controversy over file sharing the perspective of music makers is often overlooked. Loudest are the voices of copyright holders and industry representatives, their lawyers and politicians. For the vast majority of musicians, however, the current regime is neither just nor practical. Its inherent contradictions have been starkly revealed by digital technology but those contradictions have been there all along. This talk will bring the perspective of the music maker (inclusive of musicians, composers, sound engineers and instrument builders) to a discussion of three crucial questions: 1.

Wednesday March 22, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 95
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

What if copyright really isn't about copying at all? What happens to
the concept of copyright if you take the "copy" out of it? What you're
left with is particular forms of control over the distribution of
information. And, perhaps, a better way of understanding and
reconciling other forms of information law such as freedom of the
press and telecommunications regulation.Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006
4:30 PM to 6 PM
Room 180
Open to All

With the growth of the Internet as a tool of free speech, hate speech
remains a challenging issue. The breadth of issues attendant to regulating and addressing hate speech on the Internet is seen by considering a number of questions. Should universities ban hate speech on their networks? Should libraries install filters to protect children? Should your Internet Service Provider remove harmful posts? These and other thought-provoking subjects will be discussed, with a unique opportunity to ask questions of two experts in this area.Ann Brick is a Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.

Monday March 20, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 280A
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

Starting in June 2003, Julian Dibbell spent 9 months trying to make a living buying and selling virtual items (swords, castles, gold pieces) from the online fairytale world Ultima Online, a massively multiplayer role-playing game. His experience illuminates a strange new parallel world and the changing relationship between value and reality in the postpostmodern economy.About the Speaker: Julian Dibbell is the author of two books on virtual worlds, My Tiny Life (Henry Holt, 1999) and the forthcoming Play Money (Basic, 2006), and has written essays and articles on hackers, computer viruses, online communities, encryption technologies, music pirates, and other digital-age phenomena together.

Monday March 13, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 280A
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

The talk will outline Benkler's argument that social production is reshaping the production of information and culture, offering new challenges and opportunities to market actors in the networked environment, while creating opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. These results are by no means inevitable, however. A systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today’s emerging networked information environment.

NOTE NEW DATE

Monday February 27, 2006
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 280A
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served

In recent years we've seen the emergence of new grassroots media forms: text blogging, podcasting, Webcasting, video blogging, and digital photography as social media. What happens when the cultures and values of these vibrant new media forms bump up the realities of copyright law and outdated business practices? One of the most striking examples of this disconnect occurs in the world of mash-ups, a new artform that combines elements of existing video and audio to create startling new works. How should website operators deal with such cutting-edge creations that may or may not fall under the