The Fight for the Future: How People Defeated Hollywood and Saved the Internet--For Now
Edward Lee, Professor of Law & Director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
November 5, 2013 at 12:30pm ET
Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett St, 2nd Floor
This talk will explain how a grassroots movement involving millions of people was able to defeat money, politicians, Hollywood, and the copyright lobby, all in the name of a "free and open Internet." People used Facebook, Twitter, other social media, blogs, and websites to organize and launch protests against SOPA and ACTA, two controversial copyright proposals in the United States and European Union that many feared would lead to Internet censorship. Participants will learn how the Internet helped people fight for their Internet freedoms--and do the unthinkable in stopping powerful lobbyists and the entertainment industry in their effort to clamp down on online piracy at all costs.
About Ed
Edward Lee is a Professor of Law and the Director of the internationally recognized Program in Intellectual Property Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. He graduated summa cum laude from Williams College with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy (highest honors) and classics, and cum laude from Harvard Law School.
His Boston Review article The Day Wikipedia Went Dark was published on the one year anniversary of the Wikipedia blackout. As a contributor to the Huffington Post, he has written various articles related to the Internet, copyright, and pop culture. As a law professor, he has written extensively about free speech and copyright law, and the history of the freedom of the press. Previously, he worked with Lawrence Lessig at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, including on Eldred v. Ashcroft and Golan v. Holder, two of the most significant cases involving the First Amendment and copyright law.