Internet Law Colloquium

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Internet Law Colloquium

Harvard Law School and the Berkman Center are pleased to announce the Internet Law Colloquium, a discussion and speaker series launched by professors William Fisher, Charles Nesson, John Palfrey, and Jonathan Zittrain. The colloquium presents topics and papers on current issues and controversies in Internet law. Presenters come from multiple disciplines and offer divergent perspectives on law, technology, and their social implications. Students in the Colloquium will work on original research papers under the guidance of one of the faculty members.

In the 2005 academic year, the Colloquium meets on Wednesdays from 5:00 - 7:00PM in Morgan Courtroom, Austin Hall (third floor). For questions about the Colloquium, please send e-mail to Berkman Fellow Derek Bambauer (dbambaue AT cyber.harvard.edu).

Term Paper Update: The papers for the Colloquium are due 11 May 2005, by 5:00PM. Please e-mail them to Derek Bambauer.

Please visit the H2O project for the Colloquium.

The Colloquium's schedule:

• 2004 sessions
• 2005 sessions

2004

• 15 September: William Fisher and Charles Nesson (Harvard Law School) debate The Future of Digital Media: Alternative Compensation Systems or Speedbumps? Please read Chapter 6 of Professor Fisher's book, Promises to Keep, and the background document on Speedbumps Scenario for Digital Media. You may also find the Introduction to Promises to Keep helpful.
• 22 September: BREAK (Berkman Center Open House - 7PM, Langdell South)
• 29 September: John Palfrey (Berkman Center, Harvard Law School) discusses the relationship between the legislator and standards-setter in Cross-Border Issues in Cyberlaw
• 6 October: BREAK (no meeting)
• 13 October: Jonathan Zittrain (Harvard Law School) answers the question, "What Is Cyberlaw?" Please read Professor Larry Lessig's article The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach.
• 20 October: Guest speakers Jeremy Williams, from Warner Brothers, and Jared Jussim, from Sony Entertainment and Jerry Maguire, will discuss the future of movies.
• 27 October: BREAK (no meeting) - fly-out week
• 3 November: BREAK (no meeting)
• 10 November: Professor Terry Fisher leads a discussion of cybercrime. Guest speaker Assistant U.S. Attorney Dena Sacco will speak about her experience prosecuting child pornography cases. Please read this chapter on cybercrime, which is also available in hard copy at the Berkman Center on Monday, November 9.
• 17 November: BREAK (no meeting) 
• 24 November: BREAK (no meeting)
• 1 December: The Colloquium will discuss the emergence of Voice telephony over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The focus of this discussion is whether VoIP ought to be regulated in the same way as we've traditionally regulated telephony or differently, perhaps closer to the manner that "internet services" tend to have been treated to date. Please give some thought to framing the hard questions that are facing the FCC Commissioners in the US and their counterparts around the world as they consider what sort of regulatory regime to establish to cover this fast-emerging application and associated technical environment. Please read the following pieces:

   

  • Vonage v. Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (2003)
  • News Release: FCC Finds that Vonage Not Subject to Patchwork of State Regulations Governing Telephone Companies (2004)
  • Statement of Chairman Powell on VoIP (2004)
  • Saltzer, Reed & Clark, End-to-End Arguments in Systems Design (1981)
  • Skype - please explore in as much depth as you want
• 8 December: Postponed - no meeting.

2005

• 2 February 2005: Global Voices. We'll consider issues raised by the Global Voices track of the Votes, Bits & Bytes conference. Please read the Global Voices memo (pages 18-25), Jay Rosen's Webcred summary (including Part 2 and Part 3), David Berlind's Midnight Oil post, and listen to the audioblog of Daoud Kuttab's talk on AmmanNet at the Berkman Center.
• 9 February 2005: BREAK (no meeting)
• 16 February 2005: We'll discuss reports from the Internet & Society conference (Votes, Bits & Bytes) based on your response papers. We seek 4 volunteers to present for 3 - 5 minutes and then to lead discussion for 30 minutes each. Please sign up on the Wiki.
• 23 February 2005: Professor Thomas Hoeren will speak on "Internet law - a European bird's-eye view." In preparation, we suggest you browse Europe's Information Society, Information Society Policies at a Glance, and Today's Framework. We suggest reading eEurope 2005: An information society for all.
• 9 March 2005: Professor Ronald Mann and Seth Belzley will present. Please read the draft of their paper.
• 16 March 2005: Professor Cass Sunstein will discuss "The Nightmare and the Noble Dream: Extremism and Information Aggregation on the Internet." Please read this document, with particular attention to chapters 2 and 4. Researchers John Horrigan, from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and Kelly Garrett, from the University of Michigan School of Information, will serve as respondents. Please read their study The Internet and Democratic Debate.
• 6 April 2005: Eric Priest will discuss his research on "The Future of Music and Movie Piracy in China." His paper examines the piracy problem in China in light of the new challenges and opportunities posed by the Internet, and considers what China's options are for moving forward. It focuses on the merits and demerits of three possible routes China might take--(1) cracking down hard on piracy; (2) proceeding with the status quo (that is, minimal enforcement effort but very gradual improvement); and (3) considering an ACS as an alternative to copyright. There is an additional slot available if someone has research that they would be interested to present.
• 20 April 2005: The ILC will discuss Internet filtering and censorship, after the release of the OpenNet Initiative's study on China's filtering. Please read the following:
  • Jonathan Zittrain, Internet Points of Control
  • John Palfrey, Local Nets: Filtering and the Internet Governance Problem
  • OpenNet Initiative, Internet Filtering in China 2004-2005
  
  Optional, but recommended, readings include:
  • OpenNet Initiative, Internet Filtering in Saudi Arabia 2004-2005
  • OpenNet Initiative, A Starting Point: Legal Implications of Internet Filtering
  • State of Utah's filtering law
  • OpenNet Initiative, Internet Filtering in United Arab Emirates 2004-2005
  • OpenNet Initiative, Internet Filtering in Bahrain 2004-2005
• 27 April 2005: Professor Michael Carroll will present. Please download and read the articles provided by Prof. Carroll; begin with the Poynder and Johnson articles, then move to the Antelman and NFP pieces, and finish with the news articles.
• 4 May 2005: Dan Hunter, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at Wharton, will speak on virtual worlds and massively multi-player online games. Please read Lastowka & Hunter, The Laws of the Virtual Worlds (2003) and Castronova, On Virtual Economies (2002). You do not need to spend a lot of time on this piece, but please consider Castronova's assertion in Section III about "An Economic Theory of Games" and be prepared to discuss whether you think his methodology and theory are convincing enough to be worth pursuing further. In addition, please read this order from the Marvel v. NCSoft case.
• 11 May 2005: Stay tuned, we're planning a great final session that will provide a break from studying!