Jack Valenti and Lawrence Lessig Meet at Harvard to Debate the Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet

Cambridge, MA – In the ideological war being fought over rights to digital content in the age of the global Internet, Motion Picture Association of America head Jack Valenti and renowned cyberlaw expert Lawrence Lessig represent its most powerful conflicting forces. On October 1, 2000 at 7:00p.m. EDT, Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society will present a debate between Valenti and Lessig on the future of intellectual property online--the subject of increasing controversy in the wake of emerging technologies that allow for the easy sharing of digital content among consumers, and recent decisions in judicial cases testing the propriety of such technologies. Free and open to the public, "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate" takes place in the historic Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall on the Harvard Law School campus, and will be webcast live to an international audience.

Jack Valenti has served as head of the MPAA since 1966.  He made headlines this year speaking out on behalf of the established film and music industries against those who, in his view, use the Internet to steal others' intellectual property. Valenti has called the defense of such property key to America's continuing economic prosperity, and the MPAA has joined other publishers in an aggressive legal battle to protect (and some would say, extend) intellectual property rights in this era of digital media and Internet technology. The list of industry targets--Napster, iCraveTV, 2600 News Magazine in the New York DeCSS case, RecordTV.com and Scour--is growing, as is the roster of recent legislation intended to enhance the control of copyright owners over their works in new media.

Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor and author of the highly-acclaimed "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," offers a different perspective on possibilities for the digital environment, leading a movement to restore the public interest in our popular, legal, and technical conceptions of intellectual property. Lessig urges us to treat the Constitution's copyright clause as striking a balance between private intellectual property and a public intellectual commons, warning that should the balance tilt too far in favor of copyright holders, the public will risk losing its constitutionally-mandated right to a vibrant public domain.

Valenti and Lessig have most recently clashed in the pages of the Industry Standard, expressing divergent views of how the Internet should evolve, and what the balance of control should be between publishers and readers on- and off-line.

"Cheap bandwidth and large hard drives have made it easy to copy and disseminate digital content, including content 'ripped' from CDs and DVDs without permission of the respective publishers," says Harvard Law School professor Jonathan Zittrain, faculty co-director of the Berkman Center and moderator of the debate. "How do we define and protect the legitimate rights of intellectual property owners without extinguishing fair use? This is a debate to explore that question, focusing on shades of gray in what is often seen as a black and white issue."

 "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate" is part of an ongoing series of online discussions and webcast conferences presented by the Berkman Center that are designed to address serious constitutional questions now pending in the courts while exploring innovative uses of the Internet for educational and public interest purposes. For more information, including details on how to register to participate, in person or on the Web, please visit the following website: <http://cyber.harvard.edu/futureofip>.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research program founded to explore the legal, social, and political issues resulting from the development of the Internet and its impact on society. Predicated on the belief that the best way to understand cyberspace is to actually build out into it, the Berkman Center pursues a program of active research that integrates the building and use of Internet tools with study of the issues the Internet engenders. As part of this active research mission, the Berkman Center develops, uses, and freely shares an open software platform for online education and deliberative processes, as well as sponsoring events--ranging from informal lunches to webcast conferences--to bring its diverse network of participants together for substantive debate.