FC: Jack Valenti vs. Larry Lessig debate in Cambridge 10/1

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[I am speaking at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville tonight at 
7:30 pm ET. The location is Minor Hall, admission is free, and I'll be 
talking until 9 pm about, well, the kind of topics you see here. --Declan]


> Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 14:55:59 -0400
> To: declan () well com
> From: Donna Wentworth <colt () law harvard edu>
> Subject: Valenti vs. Lessig, October 1
>
> Dear Declan,
>
> We at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society are presenting a debate
> between MPAA head Jack Valenti and Larry Lessig on Sunday, October 1, 2000
> on the future of intellectual property on the Internet, and I hoped you
> might help us spread the word by sending the below announcement to your
> politech list. The event is free and open to the public, and will also be
> webcast live to an international audience.
>
> *Please circulate widely*
>
> "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate"
> <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/futureofip/>
>
> Sponsored by:
> The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
> <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu>
>
> Date and time:
> October 1, 2000, 7:00 PM EDT
>
> Where:
> Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall, Harvard Law School,
> Cambridge, Massachusetts
>
> *Official press release*
>
> 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 7:00
> PM 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.law.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
> together its diverse network of participants for substantive debate.
>
> ***
>
> ............
> Donna Wentworth
> Editor
> The Filter <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filter>
> Berkman Center for Internet & Society
> Harvard Law School
> Phone: (617) 496-0747
> Fax: (617) 495-7641
> filter-editor () cyber law harvard edu
> colt () law harvard edu




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