Cyberlaw/Day 5

• Pirate Bay Tries to buy Sealand
• Although Sweden is Homey, Sealand also appealed to the Pirate Bay.
• Jack Valenti's 1982 Congressional Testimony regarding Sony

University Filtering (group exercise)

• IT/General Counsel's perspective:
  • What is the minimum legal duty to satisfy the record companies?
  • What technical interventions are possible?
    • (1) Install speed bumps:
      • Block 'bad bits'. Reduce traffic in targeted areas.
      • Block all bits. Result: it takes longer to download/upload the Daily Show.
      • Target 'unusual' activity.
    • (2) Block certain ports altogether.
  • What licensing solutions are possible?
    • Penn State/GW model of charging students ~$10 apiece to set up legal file-sharing networks.
    • Industries like this because they are building a future customer base. Can use music to leverage into other products.
  • Other solutions?
    • Noank / AHRA model.
    • Refuse to turn over information to RIAA.
• University Professor's perspective:
  • 'Thank you for your letter. We've thought about it.'
  • Worry that imposing these restrictions creates a slippery slope to other kinds of blocks: indecent, seditious, etc. Hard to draw this line between acceptable and anti-free speech blocking.
    • Concern = horizontal portability of tech solutions.
  • Also, blocking an application on a campus might prevent good non-infringing uses from developing.