From: Filter Editor [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 17 September 2004 19:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Filter, No. 6.11
No. 6.11 <--The Filter--> 09.17.04
Your regular dose of public-interest Internet news and commentary
from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at
H a r v a r d L a w S c h o o l
CONTENTS:
[1] In the News: Legal Round-Up
[2] Case in Point: Politics & the Net
[3] Berkman News: Back to School
[4] Conference Watch
[5] Bookmarks: Fun for Browsing
[6] Quotables: Overheard Online
[7] Filter Facts: About Us, Not a Copyright
--------------------------
[1] IN THE NEWS
================
* Milestone Decisions
Internet law saw several major court decisions this month. Last week's
decision in Center for Democracy and Technology et al. v. Pappert struck
down a Pennsylvania law that imposed liability on ISPs for child pornography
"available on the Internet, even if the ISPs are not hosting the offending
content and have no relationship whatsoever with the publishers of the
content," the CDT explained. The U.S. District Court found the law
unconstitutional for violating the First Amendment. As reports noted, the
law resulted in suppression of over 1 million sites when ISPs attempted to
block 400 pornographic ones.
The Court's decision:
<http://www.cdt.org/speech/pennwebblock/20040910order.pdf>
Details on the case:
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/home?wid=10&func=viewSubmission&sid=566>
More information on Internet filtering, domestically and abroad:
<http://www.opennetinitiative.net/>
And in Bridgeport Music v. Dimension Films, the court ruled that a 3-chord
riff sampled from George P. Clinton's song, "Get Off Your Ass and Jam," was
a violation of copyright. "Get a license or do not sample," ruled the Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals. Critics argued that the court's attempt to create
a "bright-line" test for determining copyright violations oversimplified
legal, political, technological, and musical considerations in the case.
The Court's Decision: <http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/6th/04a0297p.html>
Commentary: <http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002153.shtml>
<http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2004/09/08#a771>
More information about the crisis in digital media:
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media>
* Update on the SCO litigation
The SCO v. IBM case grinds on, though SCO has suffered several recent
setbacks. The company recently announced a third-quarter net loss of $7.4
million on revenue of $11.2 million. A major source of spending was
litigation, which cost the company $7.2 million last quarter. Recently, SCO
negotiated a cap on its laywers' fees by offering attorneys a greater share
of any recovery from the suits. Inside the courtroom, IBM has asked the
court to bar SCO from distributing Linux on the charge that SCO has violated
Linux's GNU General Public License. And SCO's suit against DaimlerChrysler
ended with a whimper when a Michigan judge dismissed every claim in SCO's
suit, save one involving timing. SCO's CEO, Darl McBride, has stated that
the company has no plans to sue other Linux users. Stay tuned.
On financial losses:
<http://ir.sco.com/edgar.cfm?SortOrder=Type%20Ascending&DocType=&Year=#>
<http://ir.sco.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=142404>
On the DaimlerChrysler case:
<http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/
0,10801,94664,00.html>
* Friendster Loses Friends over Fired Blogger
Joyce Park, a long-time blogger, was dismissed from her job at the social
networking company, Friendster, ostensibly over three weblog posts about her
job. "Friendster is in the business of getting people to reveal information
about themselves, and for them to terminate me like this is sort of
undermining their whole mission," Park told News.com. Many in the
blogosphere cancelled Friendster accounts in protest. Friendster has
refused to comment.
The story:
<http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=10839&hed=No+Friendster+of+mine>
The blog: <http://troutgirl.com/blog/index.php?/archives/46_Shitcanned.html>
[2] CASE IN POINT
==================
This December, the Berkman Center and some friends are hosting the next in
our series of Internet & Society conferences. We're taking a skeptical look
at whether the Internet is transforming politics. We're interested in
global themes, in campaigns of all sorts and all levels, and not just the US
presidential election. We'd love your help in pulling together the panels
and discussions. What would be most helpful at this stage is to come up
with the hardest, most interesting questions that might serve as the
organizing principle for a specific panel or discussion session on the
primary day of the conference, December 10, 2004. An example might be: "Are
campaigns more effective at engaging young people in campaigns by using
Internet technologies?" Give us a better one.
The Question: Is this a question you'd show up to hear discussed? Could you
improve it, or build upon it? And any suggestions for participants to help
discuss it?
Give us your suggestions by joining the H2O discussion:
<http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/JoinProject.do?projectID=65>
Learn more about the conference:
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/is2k4/index.html>
[3] BERKMAN NEWS
=================
* Promises to Keep
The new book from William Fisher, Professor at Harvard Law School and
Director of the Berkman Center, is now available. "Promises to Keep:
Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment" makes the case for
rethinking copyright law, restructuring the existing digital media crisis,
and building a new federal system in which users have greater access to
creative material and artists get compensated directly.
The book: <http://tfisher.org/PTK.htm>
A Review: <http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CA53F.htm>
* Back to School
Classes are back in session at the Berkman Center. This fall, Prof. Charles
Nesson leads a team of instructors in the Harvard Law School seminar,
Digital Democracy. The Internet Law Colloquim will be team taught by the
Berkman Faculty Directors Terry Fisher, Charlie Nesson, Jonathan Zittrain,
and John Palfrey to discuss some of the current controversies involving the
legal regulation of the Internet. Executive Director John Palfrey teaches
Cyberlaw and the Global Economy. And two of the Berkman Center's new
clinical instructors, Bruce Keller and Jeffrey Cunard of Debevoise &
Plimpton LLP, are offering the seminar, Practical Lawyering and
Internet-Related Issues. Learn more about these courses and the Berkman
Center's Clinical Program in the websites below.
Internet Law Colloquim: <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/ilc2004>
Cyberlaw and the Global Economy:
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globaleconomy/>
Practical Lawyering: <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/practicallawyering/>
Clinical Program: <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/clinical>
* Breaking News in Internet Filtering
The Open Net Initiative -- a joint research initiative with the Berkman
Center, the Citizen Lab, and the University of Cambridge -- has released
three new reports this month that excavate a vast web of filtering and
internet censorship around the world.
Content Filtering in Iran: <http://www.opennetinitiative.net/bulletins/004/>
Chinese search engine filtering:
<http://www.opennetinitiative.net/bulletins/005/>
Google Searching and Caching in China:
<http://www.opennetinitiative.net/bulletins/006/>
Wall Street Journal story on the ONI report:
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109399116510306244,00.html?mod=todays_us
_marketplace>
[4] CONFERENCE WATCH
=====================
September:
* September 28-29, 2004, San Jose, CA - Emerging Broadband Wireless
Technologies Summit
<http://www.iqpc.com/cgi-bin/templates/genevent.html?event=5163&topic=233>
October:
* October 1-2, 2004, Ottawa, Canada - The Internet and the Law - A Global
Conversation <http://web5.uottawa.ca/techlaw/symposium.php?idnt=99&v=22>
* October 26-29, 2004, Seoul, Korea - International Symposium on Public
Participation in Internet Governance <http://int.nic.or.kr/index.htm>
* October 27-29, 2004, New Orleans, Louisiana - IAPP Privacy & Data Security
Academy & Expo <http://privacyassociation.org/html/conferences.html>
December:
* December 1-5, 2004, Cape Town, South Africa - ICANN Meeting
<http://www.icanncapetown.co.za/>
* December 10, 2004, Cambridge, Massachusetts - Internet & Society 2004:
Votes, Bits and Bytes <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/is2k4/index.html>
[5] BOOKMARKS
==============
* FTC's "bounty system" proposal for catching spammers:
<http://www.ftc.gov/reports/rewardsys/040916rewardsysrpt.pdf>
* ICANN's New gTLDS:
<http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-31aug04.htm>
* WIPO and the O'Reilly Factor:
<http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2004/d2004-0464.html>
* A cartoon on Bloggers, CBS, and the Bush memos:
<http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/04.09.12.DownMountain-X.gif>
[6] QUOTABLES
==============
"We've exhausted every means of trying to work with these defendants.... We
cannot stand by and allow them to erode our business opportunity by the
wholesale infringement of our rights."
-Kevin Bermeister, CEO of Altnet, on his company's lawsuit against the RIAA
for alleged patent infringement
<http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5357332.html>
"We knew it would be embarrassing.... We couldn't get approval; we did our
darnedest."
-Suzanne Council, an attorney for the Army, on the government's suppression
of its own instructional video about freedom of information. The government
didn't release the film over concern about copyright permissions.
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040901/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pent
agon_bogart_video_3>
[7] FILTER FACTS
==================
* Talk Back
Tell us what you think -- send feedback and news announcements to
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* Subscription Info
Subscribe or Unsubscribe: <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filter/subscribe>
* About Us
Filter is a publication of the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School.
Co-editors: Wendy Koslow, Mary Bridges
Contributors in this issue: Derek Bambauer, Derek Slater
*Not a Copyright
This work is hereby released into the public domain. Please share it. To
read the public domain dedication, visit
<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain>.
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