Old Laws/New Media

Topic Owners: Matt Sanchez, Debbie Rosenbaum, Shubham Mukherjee

This topic concerns the tension that occurs when we attempt to apply old laws to new media and communications technologies (including the Internet). The discussions in this session should provide a useful legal perspective on the societal issues addressed in the sessions regarding music, news, and other communications media.

Tentative "questions of the week"

• How has new media affected traditional communications and media industries and challenged traditional law?
• How has traditional law challenged new media?
• Should new media be treated like one of the traditional media (print, broadcasting, or common carriers), a hybrid, or something entirely new?
• How have the courts, Congress, and other lawmaking bodies responded to new media technologies?
• What regulatory regime is emerging, if any, to govern new media?
• How do we deal with the fact that there is little legal infrastructure that takes into account today's new media and technological environments?
• Do we apply old laws to new technologies, or do we create new regulations?
• How can we create sound policy that aligns with both traditional legal and moral aspirations while according with today's technological realities?

Tentative ideas for topics

• Copyright law (e.g., recording industry's litigation campaign against filesharing) (including the specific example of Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum, a federal file-sharing case the three of us are working on with Professor Charles Nesson, co-founder of the Berkman Center)
• Speech-related law (e.g., defamation, anonymous speech rights)
• Privacy laws

Possible guests

• Google Telecom Lawyer Rick Whitt
• Google Antitrust Lawyer Dana Wagner
• Berkman Center's David Ardia, who runs the Citizen Media Law Project
• Cary Sherman of RIAA
• Professor Charles Nesson
• Public Citizen Litigation Group Attorney Paul Alan Levy
• Electronic Frontier Foundation Attorney Fred Von Lohmann

Possible readings

• Various court documents and media coverage from the Sony v. Tenenbaum case
• Materials related to online defamation and anonymity law (AutoAdmit, Roommates.com, etc.)
• Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 (1997) (Supreme Court decision striking down parts of Communications Decency Act and also the Court's leading statement on the constitutional status of the Internet)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005) (Internet services that facilitate file sharing of copyrighted materials can be held liable for infringement)
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998 law that extended U.S. copyright principles to digital materials).

Other considerations

• TBD