LibertyVoice

Today, I’m pleased to announce CITP’s visitors for the upcoming academic year.

Deven R. Desai, Visiting Fellow: Deven is an Associate Professor of Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and a permanent blogger at Concurring Opinions. Professor Desai’s scholarship centers on intellectual property, information theory, and Internet-related law. He plans to work on a major project exploring the ways trademark law can foster, or limit, online innovation.

James Katz, Visiting Fellow. Jim is Professor, Chair of the Department of Communication, and Director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers, where he holds the University’s highest professorial rank. He has devoted much of his career to exploring the social consequences of new communication technology, especially the mobile phone and Internet. Currently he is looking at how personal communication technologies can be used by teens from urban environments to engage in informal science and health learning. This research is being carried out through an NSF-sponsored project with New Jersey’s Liberty Science Center.

Rebecca MacKinnon, Visiting Fellow (spring term): Rebecca is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre. She is currently on leave, as an Open Society Fellow, to work on a book tentatively titled “Internet Freedom and Control: Lessons from China for the World.” She will spend the spring 2010 semester at CITP, continuing to work on the book. Rebecca is a cofounder of Global Voices, a founding member of the Global Network Initiative, and a former television journalist, having served as CNN’s bureau chief in Beijing and, later, Tokyo.

Jens Grossklags, Postdoctoral Research Associate: Jens, a new PhD from the UC Berkeley School of Information, studies information economics and technology policy. He focuses on the intersection of privacy, security, and network systems. His approach is highly interdisciplinary, combining economics, computer science, and public policy. Currently, he is investigating the ways institutions and end users make decisions about complex computer security risks under conditions of uncertainty and limited information.

Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Visiting Postdoctoral Research Associate: Joe, whose work is supported by the NSF ACCURATE Center, also earned his PhD from the UC Berkeley School of Information. His dissertation examined public policy mechanisms for making computerized voting systems more transparent. He continues to work along the same lines, drawing lessons from voting machines, gaming machines and other technologies on how to best protect users from error and malicious activity.

In addition to these full time appointments, the Center will also welcome two Visiting Research Collaborators on an occasional basis: Alex Halderman, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Michigan (and recently in the news for his research group’s analysis of China’s Green Dam software), and David Lukens, an attorney who has been collaborating on the Center’s transparency work.

Websites should stop masking passwords as users type because it does not improve security and makes websites harder to use, according to two of the technology world’s leading thinkers.

For the London Free Press – June 29, 2009
Read this on Canoe
We are seeing rapid developments in use of technology in court, including twittering, texting, “Googling,” and using Facebook during trial. These tools can be helpful, but can also lead to abuse of the process.
Last month in Ottawa, Chief Justice Douglas Cunningham ruled reporters couldn’t [...]

A week after the Liberal Party came out in favour of net neutrality, David Akin notes that Liberal members of the Standing Committee on Industry recently issued a dissenting recommendation focused on copyright reform.  The recommendation was part of a report on the Canadian economy.  While the committee as a whole did not issue a recommendation on intellectual property, the Liberal members added the following:

That the Government of Canada immediately introduce legislation to amend the Copyright Act, ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), amend related acts and ensure appropriate enforcement resources are allocated to combat the scourge and considerable economic and competitive damage to Canada’s manufacturing and services sectors and to Canada’s international reputation by the proliferation of counterfeiting and piracy of intellectual property.

At one level, this is not particularly surprising – all major parties support some form of WIPO implementation (the issue is not whether, but rather how).  What is more problematic is the absence of recognition of the need for flexiblity in the law to spur innovation and the blind acceptance that Canada's international reputation has been damaged by copyright claims.  It also contrasts with the recent remarks from Industry Minister Tony Clement and Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, who as I discuss in my technology law column this week (Toronto Star version, homepage version), recently adopted a more progressive view of digital issues.

Slaw guest blogger Neil Melliship of Clark Wilson LLP canvasses the law to assess the legality of downloading music in Canada.

Brad Fox, who is working with the CFTPA on its net neutrality submission, discusses the issue in this post.

CBC's Cross Country Checkup has posted the podcast of the recent program that focused on Internet privacy and lawful access.  I appeared along with Public Safety Minister Peter van Loan.

Lawyers ACS:Law and their anti-piracy partners Logistep are currently harassing around 6,000 alleged file-sharers, demanding £665 from each to make threats of legal action go away. In yet another blow to their tenuous claims, ISP association ISPA says that its members are “not confident” that the evidence accurately identifies infringers.

Lawyers ACS:Law and their anti-piracy partners Logistep are currently harassing around 6,000 alleged file-sharers, demanding £665 from each to make threats of legal action go away. In yet another blow to their tenuous claims, ISP association ISPA says that its members are “not confident” that the evidence accurately identifies infringers.

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Knowing’ tops the chart this week for the second week in a row followed by ‘The Haunting in Connecticut’. ‘Angels and Demons’ completes this week’s top three.

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Knowing’ tops the chart this week for the second week in a row followed by ‘The Haunting in Connecticut’. ‘Angels and Demons’ completes this week’s top three.

Piracy watchdog Nexicon has found the ultimate way to turn piracy into profit for the fresh copyright holders added to their clientele. They offer alleged file-sharers the chance to settle for $10 per downloaded song or an equal amount for a pirated movie. If you decide not to settle, they promise to bankrupt you in court.

Piracy watchdog Nexicon has found the ultimate way to turn piracy into profit for the fresh copyright holders added to their clientele. They offer alleged file-sharers the chance to settle for $10 per downloaded song or an equal amount for a pirated movie. If you decide not to settle, they promise to bankrupt you in court.