Timeline

Click the "edit" link next to the month in which you want to add an event and follow the format of the other entries to make additions.

1995

January

Project Nesson The Bridge Project created http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/bridge/index.htm

1996

January

HLS Harvard Law becomes fully wired

February

8-Feb Sem. Int. Barlow John Perry Barlow pens "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace" http://homes.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html

March

11-Mar HLS Harvard Law School launches its first website

July

22-Jul Gov Zittrain Jonathan Zittrain testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight regarding ICANN

December

Book Berkman The Harvard Conference on the Internet and Society http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674459318/harvardcyberconf

1997

January

Berkman Center on Law and Technology is officialy renamed the Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/berkman_family_gift

Berkman Zittrain The Internet & Society course is offered at Harvard Law School by Lecturer Jonathan Zittrain '95

Sem. Int. Weblogs introduced to the Internet

June

Paper Isenberg The Rise of the Stupid Network http://www.hyperorg.com/misc/stupidnet.html

July

Paper Zittrain The Rise and Fall of Sysopdom http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1997-01

August

Book Nesson Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information Infrastructure http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262611260/harvardcyberconf

December

January Faculty Fisher William Fisher teaches Intellectual Property in Cyberspace, one of the Berkman Center's first online courses

1998

January

Conference Harvard holds the Second Conference on Internet & Society, asking "Will the Net Inevitably Drive a Deeper Wedge Between Rich and Poor?" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cybercon98/asp/splash.asp

March

3-Mar Berkman Miller Professor Arthur Miller '58 creates Berkman's first interactive lecture and discussion series, free and open to the public: "Privacy in Cyberspace" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/privacy99/

5-Mar Conference Nesson Digital China/Harvard Conference http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ChinaDragon/index.html

19-Mar Conference Lessig, Zittrain, Shapiro Berkman holds its Technorealism conference, asking "How Should We Think About Technology?" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/technorealism/tr_overview.html

April

Article Miller Drudge Match: Cyberspace doesn't render libel law obsolete

May

15-May Berkman Nesson Professor Nesson emails Bill Gates, suggesting Microsoft end its "Darth Vader problem" through buying Apple and giving it to a non-profit corporation.

Paper Lessig What Things Regulate Speech: CDA 2.0 v. Filtering http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1998-01

July

30-Jul Berkman Berkman releases the first issue of the Filter http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/filter?wid=379&func=viewSubmission&sid=492

September

Sem. Int. Google Inc. launched

October

28-Oct Sem. Int. Digital Millenium Copyright Act signed into law by President Bill Clinton

November

14-Nov Zittrain Berkman Center facilitates and moderates ICANN public meeting http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/open_governance/icann

December

6-Dec Conference Groups of students from MIT and Harvard Law School collaborate on new frameworks to address policy challenges from a combined legal/technical perspective. http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/6095/admin/admin-1998/conference.html

Faculty Lessig Lawrence Lessig named first Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies

Faculty Zittrain Jonathan Zittrain named first Executive Director of the Berkman Center

Staff Wilbanks John Wilbanks becomes the Berkman Center's first Assistant Director

Faculty Nesson Jamaica Project launched http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/jamaica/

Project Cabell Recording Artists Project (RAP) at Harvard Law School begins http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rap/home

1999

January

23-Jan Berkman Seltzer The Berkman Center holds the Workshop on Membership Issues for ICANN, part of the Representation in Cyberspace Study http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rcs/meeting.html

30-Jan Conference Nesson Professor Charles Nesson leads The Lessons from Woburn Conference http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/acivilaction/Conference.htm#bottom

March

Paper Lessig The Censorships of Television http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1999-01

April

Paper Bollier The Power of Openness - Why Citizens, Education, Government and Business Should Care About the Coming Revolution in Open Source Code Software http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1999-02

May

20-May Conference Lessig Harvard holds the Open Code/Open Content/Open Law conference, dedicated to building a digital commons http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/opencode/

Paper Goolsbee & Zittrain Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Taxing Internet Commerce http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1999-03

August

Paper Zittrain The Un-Microsoft Un-Remedy: Law Can Prevent the Problem That It Can’t Patch Later http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1999-04

October

Book Hyde Trickster Makes the World: Mischief, Myth and Art  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865475369/harvardcyberconf

December

December Sem. Int. Recording Industry Association of America files lawsuit against Napster

Conference Nesson, Ogletree Berkman holds Cyber Jam '99, a conference held with the Jamaican government to develop a nonprofit open code e-commerce platform http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cyberjam/cyberjam/

JOLT The Harvard Journal of Law & Technology goes online http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/

Project McLaughlin, Fishkin Internet Deliberative Polling http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rcs/fish.html

Project Nesson Judicial Gatekeeping Project http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/daubert/

Paper Lessig The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1999-05

Paper Lessig & Resnick Zoning Speech on the Internet: A Legal and Technical Model http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/1999-06

2000

February

25-Feb Conference Barlow Berkman holds the Signal or Noise conference, discussing the future of music on the Net http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/netmusic.html

Paper Zittrain What the Publisher Can Teach the Patient: Intellectual Property and Privacy in an Era of Trusted Privication, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2000-01

April

21-Apr Berkman Cabell Berkman offers "Using ICANN's UDRP," its first course certified for continuing legal education (CLE) credit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/udrp/index.html

May

1-May Berkman MacKinnon Berkman hosts "Arguing the Violence Against Women Act: Two Views" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/vaw/

30-May Amicus Nesson Openlaw Project, Universal et al. v. Corley and 2600 Enterprises http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/amicus.html

June

Conference Zittrain Harvard holds its (now impressively named) Third Biennial International Conference on Internet & Society http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/05.25/ryan.html

October

10-Oct Conference Nesson Berkman and Fred Friendly hold a judicial conference, organized with the Practicing Law Institute http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/digitaldiscovery/framework.asp

November

15-Nov Berkman Zittrain Berkman holds "The Day the Music Died?", debating Harvard's policy on Napster and its siblings http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/daymusic.html

December

Book Lessig Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465039138/harvardcyberconf

Paper Fisher Digital Music: Problems and Possibilities http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/tfisher/Music.html

2001

January

Faculty Zittrain Jonathan Zittrain named Berkman Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies

April

23-Apr Conference Zittrain Harvard hosts the nation's attorneys general for the 2001 National Association of Attorneys General Internet Law Institute

August

Book Lessig The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375726446/harvardcyberconf

Book Searls, Weinberger The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738204315/harvardcyberconf

Book Clippinger The Biology of Business: Decoding the Natural Laws of Enterprise http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078794324X/harvardcyberconf

December

December Berkman Koslow The Berkman Center Weekly Luncheon Series officially begins http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/fellows_luncheon_series

Sem. Int. Wikipedia launches the first public, collaborative encyclopedia

Sem. Int. Lessig Creative Commons founded http://wiki.creativecommons.org/History

2002

January

Book Kirkman, Maclay, Best The Global Information Technology Report, 2001-2002 http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/gitrr_030202.html

March

March Fellow Moore Ghana Project begins http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ghana2002/index.html

May

30-May Conference Nesson Berkman hosts "Cybertree 2002," focusing on globalization, rehabilitation, and reparation http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cybertree/

Paper Kariyawasam Readiness for the Networked World: Jamaica Assessment http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2002-01

July

1-Jul Conference The first iLaw Program at Harvard Law School is held http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/participants

August

Paper Tor & Oliar Incentives to Create Under a "Lifetime-Plus-Years" Copyright Duration: Lessons from a Behavioral Economic Analysis for Eldred v. Ashcroft http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2002-02

October

9-Oct Berkman Lessig U.S. Supreme Court hears oral argument in Eldred v. Ashcroft. Professor Lessig argues for Eric Eldred and petitioners. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/

November

15-Nov Conference Berkman hosts the Internet & Society 2002 conference, dubbed "A Community Experiment" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/I&S2002/index_xflash.html

December

Faculty Palfrey John Plafrey named Berkman Center Executive Director

Faculty Fisher William Fisher named Faculty Director of the Berkman Center

Faculty Zittrain Jonathan Zittrain appointed to the Oxford University Chair of Internet Governance and Regulation

Staff Maclay Information Technologies Group founded http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/itg/about/about.html

2003

January

January Fellow Zuckerman Ethan Zuckerman named Berkman Fellow

January Project Student Think Tank created http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/thinktank/projects.html

March

24-Mar Conference iLaw Program for 2003 held in Brazil http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/brazil03/participants

Paper Zittrain Internet Points of Control http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-01

April

Project Winer The Berkman Center unveils its Weblogs at Harvard Law School initiative http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/

Paper Zittrain & Edelman Internet Filtering in China http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-02

May

28-May Conference Harvard hosts the Third Open Source Content Management Conference (OSCOM 3) http://www.oscom.org/events/oscom-3/

Paper Zittrain Be Careful What You Ask For: Reconciling a Global Internet and Local Law, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-03

Paper Song Technology, Terrorism, and the Fishbowl Effect: An Economic Analysis of Surveillance and Searches http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-04

June

30-Jun Conference The 2003 iLaw Program is held at Stanford http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/stanford03/participants

August

Paper Gartner Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-05

Paper Zuckerman Global Attention Profiles - A working paper: First steps towards a quantitative approach to the study of media attention, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-06

October

5-Oct Conference Winer Distinguished blogger and Berkman fellow Dave Winer hosts BloggerCon I http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BloggerCon

Article Zittrain The Copyright Cuffs

Book Weinberger Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738208507/harvardcyberconf

Book Gasser Information Quality Regulation: Foundations Perspectives, and Applications http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3832907459/harvardcyberconf

November

Paper Fisher & Palfrey Five Scenarios for Digital Media in a Post-Napster World, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-07

Paper Gasser Information Quality and the Law, or, How to Catch a Difficult Horse, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-08

December

Berkman Winer RSS 2.0 Specification is gifted to the Berkman Center from UserLand Software http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/about.html

Winer Dave Winer named Berkman Fellow (Berkman Weblogs)

Project Shapiro PRX: Public Radio Exchange launched http://www.prx.org/

Project Berkman Radio Project (BRP) begins http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/worldwide/about.html

Paper McLaughlin Analysis and Critique of Mongolia’s Draft Law on Information Technology http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2003-09

2004

January

Project Rundle Net Dialogue Project launched http://www.netdialogue.org/

Paper Palfrey The End of the Experiment: How ICANN’s Foray Into Global Internet Democracy Failed, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-02

Paper Larson CommuniCast: Developing a Community-Programmed Webcasting Service http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-01

February

5-Feb Berkman Glasser John Palfrey speaks at the first meeting of the Harvard-Yale Cyberscholar Working Group http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/cyberscholar_working_group

Paper Gordon Illegal Internet Networks in the Developing World http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-03

March

30-Mar Paper Fisher et al. iTunes: How Copyright, Contract, and Technology Shape the Business of Digital Media – A Case Study http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/uploads/53/GreenPaperiTunes03.04.pdf

April

17-Apr Conference Winer Dave Winer and the Berkman Center host BloggerCon II

Paper Chang Computer Hacking: Making the Case for a National Reporting Requirement, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-06

Paper Druey Information Cannot Be Owned http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-05

Paper Johnson, Crawford, Palfrey The Accountable Net: Peer Production of Internet Governance http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-04

May

13-May Conference The 2004 iLaw Program is held at Harvard Law School http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/harvard_2004

24-May Amicus Fisher, Cabell, Nesson, Zittrain, Palfrey Capitol Records v. Alaujan, United States District Court of Massachusetts http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/uploads/352/amicusbrief.pdf

June

Paper Gasser iTunes: How Copyright, Contract, and Technology Shape the Business of Digital Media -- A Case Study, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-08

November

2-Nov Amicus Malone, Keller, Cunard Bosley Medical Institute v. Kremer, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/clinical/bosley.pdf

24-Nov Amicus Malone, Keller, Cunard Lamparello v. Falwell, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/clinical/lamparellobrief.pdf

Paper Gasser & Girsberger Transposing the Copyright Directive: Legal Protection of Technological Measures in EU-Member States, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-10

Paper Petrick Why DRM Should Be Cause for Concern: An Economic and Legal Analysis of the Effect of Digital Technology on the Music Industry http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2004-09

December

9-Dec Conference Berkman hosts the Internet & Society 2004 (IS2k4) Conference, studying the impact of the Internet on elections http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/is2k4/home

13-Dec Conference The 2004 iLaw Program is held in Eurasia http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/eurasia_2004

Project Zuckerman, MacKinnon Berkman Fellows Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon launch international news-blog aggregator Global Voices Online

Book Keller, Cunard Copyright Law: A Practitioner's Guide http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1402400500/harvardcyberconf

Book Zittrain The Torts Game: Defending Mean Joe Green http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/073554509X/harvardcyberconf

Book Fisher Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment http://www.tfisher.org/PTK.htm

2005

January

Staff Maclay Berkman Fellow Colin Maclay named Berkman Center Managing Director

Project Gillmor Berkman Fellow Dan Gillmor founds the Center for Citizen Media http://citmedia.org/

Paper Gasser, Slater, Palfrey, McGuire, et al. Copyright and Digital Media in a Post-Napster World: 2005 Update, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/wp2005

Paper Slater, Smith, Gasser, Bambauer, et al. Content and Control: Assessing Impact of Policy Choices in Potential Online Business Models in Music & Film Industries http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/content_and_control

Paper Maclay & Kirkman Global Networked Readiness for Education http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2005-05

February

Feb Berkman Kaplan The Berkman Center joins with IBM and Oracle in forming the Open ePolicy Group http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/epolicy/people

Paper Rundle NetDialogue: A Mechanism to Promote Transparency and Public Dialogue in International Net Governance http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2005-09

March

1-Mar Amicus Fisher, Palfrey, Zittrain MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster Ltd., Supreme Court of the United States http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/briefs/groksteramicus.pdf

18-Mar Conference MacKinnon Berkman hosts a conference on "Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/webcred/

Paper Seltzer The Broadcast Flag: It's not just TV, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2005-06

April

8-Apr Conference Berkman repeats its earlier success with Signal/Noise II http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sn/

May

Paper Weinberger Tagging and Why It Matters http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2005-07

June

22-Jun Conference The 2005 iLaw Program is held at Harvard Law School http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ilaw/harvard_2005

September

9-Sep Berkman Kaplan Berkman Center releases The Roadmap for Open Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Ecosystems http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/epolicy/roadmap.pdf

December

Sem. Int. Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn receive the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051103-5.html

13-Dec Report Slater Consumer Taste Sharing Is Driving the Online Music Business and Democratizing Culture http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/uploads/511/11-ConsumerTasteSharing.pdf

Paper Slater & McGuire Consumer Taste Sharing Is Driving the Online Music Business and Democratizing Culture, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2005-11

Paper Rundle Beyond Internet Governance: The Emerging International Framework for Governing the Networked World, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2005-16

Paper Schneider Rapid ICT Change and Workplace Knowledge Obsolescence http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/2005-04

2006

January

30-Jan Speech Fisher In Rome, Terry Fisher delivers his speech, "The Future Digital Economy: Digital Content - Creation, Distribution, and Access"

January Project Zittrain, Palfrey With support from Google, Lenovo, and Sun, the Berkman Center launches StopBadware.org http://stopbadware.org/

February

15-Feb Gov Palfrey John Palfrey testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations regarding Chinese Internet filtering

March

16-Mar Conference The 2006 iLaw Program is held in Mexico http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/03/17/creative-commons-mexico/

27-Mar Conference Another 2006 iLaw Program is held in Peru http://www.cpsr-peru.org/eventos/ilaw

April

28-Apr Conference Berkman hosts a conference on "Bloggership," asking how blogs are transforming legal scholarship http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/bloggership

May

25-May Conference The 2006 iLaw Program is held in Torino http://ilaw.ieiit.cnr.it/index.html

June

23-Jun Conference Berkman Center hosts a Second Life Avatar Marketing Panel http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/secondlife_avatarmarketingdiscussion

August

4-Aug Conference Wikipedia enthusiasts descend on Cambridge for the Berkman-hosted Wikimania 2006 http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

September

12-Sep Berkman Nesson Harvard Law School offers "CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion," the first Harvard University course available in Second Life

26-Sep Gov Fisher William Fisher testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness regarding online file sharing by students

November

20-Nov Project Palfrey, Gasser Digital Natives Project launched http://www.digitalnative.org/Main_Page

December

Faculty Zittrain Jonathan Zittrain named Berkman Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies

2007

March

5-Mar Project Isenberg F2C: Freedom to Connect http://freedom-to-connect.net/#bigidea

May

18-May Conference Palfrey, Zittrain OpenNet Initiative hosts its first public conference at Oxford to discuss the results of its research and map the ONI's future

26-May Conference Berkman hosts the OpenNet Initiative Conference 2007, discussing the future of free expression on the Internet http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/category/projects/opennet-initiative/

31-May Conference Berkman hosts the 6th Havard Conference on Internet & Soicety (IS2k7), discussing the new role of the university http://www.is2k7.org/

June

27-Jun Conference Berkman hosts the first StopBadware Anti-Spyware Coalition Conference http://blogs.stopbadware.org/articles/2007/06/27/anti_spyware_coalition_steve_gibson

Faculty Benkler Yochai Benkler becomes HLS Professor of Law and Berkman Faculty Co-Director http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/home?wid=10&func=viewSubmission&sid=2754