Tutorials

Morning Tutorials

T1. Internet and the Law 1: Speech Problems in Cyberspace (presented by the Berkman Center of Harvard Law School - CLE Credit Available)

Free speech has long been close to the core of Net values, yet the debate continues to evolve. Widespread access to the Net, at least in rich countries, has significantly shifted two of the boundaries that once constrained speech: the ability to speak anonymously and the ease of making oneself heard. With the increasing popularity of the web and email, people with something to say can more easily get their message out and, should they wish to do so, speak without making their identities immediately known. The legal issues of speech on the Net have always been tricky, particularly when political, harmful or commercial speech were involved. Many of these Net speech issues from the boom years of the 90s remain unresolved and new issues continue to emerge. The growth of the blogging movement promises to add yet new dimensions to the problem. The spam conundrum remains. The Dow Jones decision in Australia has made Net publishers the world over shudder and rethink their strategies. The respective roles of the Internet Service Provider, search engines and national governments in limiting and shaping speech continually give rise to hard questions. Intellectual property issues increasingly have major speech ramifications. This session will cover a range of current issues related to online speech at a relatively brisk pace.

John Palfrey is Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. He is particularly interested in issues of Internet and democracy, both in the US and globally, and commercial law related to the Net. Prior to re-joining the Berkman Center in 2002, he worked at the law firm of Ropes & Gray. He co-teaches an Internet law course at the Harvard Extension School.

T2. How to Analyze Censorware

This tutorial will discuss basic procedures and techniques for analyzing what is blacklisted by a censorware ("filtering") program. The emphasis will be on explaining the internals of the operations of the blacklists, focusing on how both extensive porn-passing, and collateral damage to innocent sites, are inevitable. A programming background is helpful, but not required, for the material. Due to the possible risk of arrest of the presenter, cryptographic circumvention techniques will NOT be mentioned.

Seth Finkelstein, Anti-censorship activist and programmer, has spent hundreds of unpaid and uncredited hours over several years to decrypt and expose to public scrutiny the secret contents of the most popular censorware blacklists. Seth has been active in raising the level of public awareness about the dangers that Internet content blocking software and rating/labeling schemes pose to freedom of communication. His work has armed many with information of great assistance in the fight against government mandated use of these systems.

T3. Cryptography Practice and Policy

This tutorial will provide both hands on training in using cryptography and explore the policy implications in the US and around the world.

This tutorial is still being developed. Please check back soon for more details.

T4. European Union Data Protection - Theory and Practice

This tutorial will provide a comprehensive view on the European Union approach to the protection of online privacy, analyzing the fundamental references, the general and the sectoral Directives and the other documents about online privacy in the European Union, with special reference to the discipline adopted by the recent electronic communications Directive. In particular, it will cover the difficult balance between data protection regulations and electronic communications regulations. It will also provide general information about European data protection law, especially on the rules applying to the transfer of data to countries outside the EU. Its goal is to prepare attendees to be able to expand their relations (namely business ones) with EU countries, respecting European rules.

The tutorial will be led by Nicola Lugaresi, Associate Professor University of Trento, Law School and Department of Legal Sciences and Catarina Sarmento e Castro, Lecture Assistant University of Coimbra, Law School Board ember of the Portuguese Data Protection Authority.

Afternoon Tutorials

T5. Internet and the Law 2: Too Much Music, Too Little Music (presented by the Berkman Center of Harvard Law School - CLE Credit Available)

Napster started a revolution. A couple of guys, a cool idea, and a simple technology awakened the sleeping giants of the music publishing business and made them very, very afraid. A legal battle was joined, and some of America's most famous lawyers fought it out in court. Some of America's richest venture capitalists lost their shirts, and a business deal closed out the first chapter of the story. The retaliation against the P2P movement by some of the content owners and distributors has combined law with code in an attempt to lock down digital content more than ever before. A potent combination of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and its siblings plus powerful trusted systems threaten to shift the pendulum yet further in the opposite direction -- but try telling that to the hundreds of millions of subscribers to the P2P networks. Meanwhile, convincing, definitively legal business models to distribute online content to the mass market seem to be eluding even the deep-pocketed players in the media business. Some of the players have changed since the Napster days -- now it's KaZaA and Grokster and Morpheus rather than Napster -- but the stakes are just as high and the issues maybe even more complex. This whirlwind overview of the pitched battle over intellectual property in cyberspace will touch down on digital music and video in particular. We will also look ahead to the next round of legal battles and will assess likely outcomes.

Jonathan Zittrain is the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is a co-founder of the Berkman Center and served as its first executive director. His research includes digital property, privacy, and speech, and the role that is played by private intermediaries in Internet architecture. He currently teaches Internet & Society: The Technologies and Politics of Control, where he examines the legal, political, and technical struggles for control and ownership of the Internet and its content.

T6. ENUM: White-Anting Telcos, or White-Anting Democracy?

ENUM is a proposed extension to the Domain Name System (DNS), designed to enable mapping from conventional telephone numbers to the IP-addresses of Internet-connected devices. It is highly open-ended, potentially very useful, and potentially extremely threatening. This session will provide a 1-hour tutorial on the ENUM scheme, a 1-hour critique of its social implications, a 1/4 hour defence by its proponents, and a 3/4 hour open debate.

The tutorial will be lead by John Morris of CDT. The proponent of ENUM will be Richard Shockey of IETF ENUM WG. The critic will be Roger Clarke of Aust Privacy Foundation and Electronic Frontiers Australia.

T7. Kicking Legislative Butt: An Introduction to Advocacy and Activism

Passing legislation, political organizing, and using the media to make your message prevail: In this workshop, participants will examine a successful legislative campaign and discuss ways to impact policy. This workshop or keynote will present effective strategies to attract news coverage and build political power from the bottom-up. The session is guaranteed to be informative, inspiring and motivational. You might be intimidated by politics now but you will be ready to change a law after this interactive session.

Ben Smilowitz is the Youth Coordinator for the Missouri Governor, Bob Holden. He currently oversees the creation and implementation of the groundbreaking Missouri Governor's Youth Network, Youth Cabinet and Youth Service Council. Smilowitz helped thousands of young people around the United States realize they have the power to impact change on all levels of government and in their communities.

T8. The FCC and Internet Regulation 101

Unregulated Internet? Where!? In a few quick years Washington has produced a plethora of laws and regulations to encumber all types of Internet activity. What are these laws and what do they mean for you? Some are opportunities and some are obligations. Learn the who, what, where, and when of laws, regulations, and initiatives.

Robert Cannon is the Director of the Washington Internet Project and the Senior Counsel for Internet Issues at the FCC. He was the former Legal Columnist for Boardwatch Magazine, the Chair of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference and the former Chair and Founder of the Federal Communications Bar Association Online Committee.