Washington Wars: An Insider's Post-Grokster
View of the Fight over Internet File-Sharing
with
Adam Eisgrau
Executive Director
P2P United
Monday October 24, 2005
12:30-1:30 PM
Room 280A
Stanford Law School
Open to All
Lunch Served
You've checked out the software, possibly posted bail, read the opinion and thought about theory, but you haven't really "grokked" Grokster (and Morpheus, and BearShare and eDonkey and Blubster) until you've taken this behind-the-scenes tour of the way the fight over file-sharing was really fought in the halls of Congress, on the pages of the press and in the hearts and minds of a generation. Adam Eisgrau, lobbyist for the developers of the software just named, will provide a rare glimpse into the real workings of one of the new century's most contentious issues and its larger implications -- not just for copyright law, the Internet or e-commerce, but for the flow of information envisioned by the Framers of the Constitution as critical to the health of Democracy itself. Join Adam for a wild ride from the trenches to the clouds and back again.
A leading Washington expert in intellectual property issues born of the Internet revolution, Adam Eisgrau offers two decades of wide-ranging experience in the private, public, and government sectors. Adam is the President of the newly-launched Eisgrau Business Alliances. Previously with Flanagan Consulting LLC, he represents diverse companies and organizations concerned with e-commerce and digital media, including most visibly P2P United: a trade association of five leading "peer-to-peer" file-sharing software developers formed in July of 2003. Adam serves as P2P United's Executive Director, principal lobbyist and spokesperson.
As Judiciary Committee Counsel to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) from 1993 to 1995, Adam was intimately involved in many of the most controversial and cutting edge policy issues of the time, including: intellectual property protection, privacy, data security, product liability and bankruptcy reform, as well as immigration and the Senate's historic vote to prospectively ban assault weapons.
Between 1995 and 1999, Adam served as the American Library Association's first Legislative Counsel. His position as the organization's principal domestic and international lobbyist on intellectual property issues allowed Adam to help shape the debate as Congress and the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") wrestled with the reform of "IP" law for the internet age. He also was a primary organizer and media spokesperson for the more than 40 public and private sector members of the Digital Future Coalition, representing the Coalition in Geneva at the WIPO's historic 1996 treaty conference and before Congress in subsequent debate over the treaty's implementation.
Adam began his Washington career in 1984 practicing communications law with a focus on then-emerging technologies on the leading edge of the communications revolution, such as high definition television, satellite radio and TV, and electronic device testing regulation. An expert in Congressional trench "warfare," Adam came to private lobbying practice from Handgun Control where he oversaw Federal Relations and Public Policy.
A native New Yorker, Adam is an Adjunct Professor with Georgetown University's Masters Program on Communication, Culture & Technology. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1984 and graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1980.