From: Dave Banisar <banisar@epic.org>
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 19:02:06 -0800 (PST)
To: misc@epic.org
Subject: Panel - Copyright and the Net: Is Legislation the Answer?
Message-ID: <v03010d03af1da77b7c75@[204.91.138.84]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



         Copyright and the Net: Is Legislation the Answer?

                ACM97: The Next 50 Years of Computing
                  Sunday March 2   2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
                   Fairmont Hotel     San Jose, CA

      Sponsored by the U.S. Public Policy Committee of ACM (USACM)


Panelists: Hank Barry, Pam Samuelson, Mark Stefik, Gio Wiederhold
Moderator: Barbara Simons, Chair, USACM


  o What is the role of copyright in all-electronic publication world?
  Will it be replaced by contract law?

  o Can the needs of authors who want to publish for renown (academics) and
  authors that want to publish for pay (entertainment etc) be handled in one
  mechanism?

  o Should browsing on the World Wide Web of full copyrighted texts be made
  illegal because people make temporary copies in their computer's memory
  when they look at a web page?

  o Should online service providers, including libraries and universities,
  have to monitor user accounts in order to enforce copyright laws?

  o Should firms that compile data have intellectual property rights so
  that scientists and news reporters can't use the data without permission
  or payments?

  o How should existing differences in national copyright be handled in a
  networked world where national boundaries and are little more than a
  speedbump on the information superhighway?

  o Does technological protection for copyrighted works inherently undermine
  fair use ?


These and related issues will confront the 105th Congress in the coming year.
They will also be examined by this panel, which will discuss controversies
surrounding the extension of copyright law to deal with cyberspace.
Examples include: How does proposed legislation reflect the net?
How much influence have lobbyists for the entertainment industry had
in writing legislation?  What should be the role of professional
societies in analyzing policy initiatives?

We will discussed legislation and international treaties that
have been proposed by the White House.  We will also examine both
technical and legal approaches to problems created by the net,
as well as how various approaches might impact the
science, technology, and business communities.

A significant amount of time will be allowed for audience
interaction in the discussion.



              Biographical sketches


Hank Barry is member of the firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
and is Chairman of the firm's Interactive New Media practice group.
He represents publicly and privately-held companies in the multimedia,
software, computer, on-line and entertainment industries.  Hank has authored
numerous articles in the fields of venture capital, interactive
media and technology transactions. He currently serves on the
Editorial Board of the Cyberspace Lawyer.
Hank received his law degree in 1983 from Stanford University,
where he was managing editor of the Stanford Law Review.


Pamela Samuelson is a Professor at the University of California at Berkeley
where she holds a joint appointment at the School of Information Management
and Systems and in the School of Law.  She has written and spoken
extensively on the challenges posed by digital technologies for the law,
particularly in the field of intellectual property.  She is a Contributing
Editor of Communications of the ACM and a Fellow of the Electronic Frontier
Foundation.


Mark Stefik is a principal scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research
Center.  At Stanford University he received a Bachelor of Science degree in
mathematics in 1970 and a Ph.D. in computer science in 1980.  His current
research activities are in approaches for creating, protecting, and reusing
digital property.  Stefik is review editor for the international
journal "Artificial Intelligence" and has authored two books on
AI-related topics and a third book on the Internet.


Gio Wiederhold is a professor of Computer Science at Stanford
University, with courtesy appointments in Medicine and Electrical
Engineering.  His research focuses on large-scale software construction,
specifically applied to information systems, the protection
of their content, often using knowledge-based techniques.
Wiederhold has authored and coauthored more than 250 published papers
and reports on computing and medicine.  Wiederhold received a degree
in Aeronautical Engineering in Holland in 1957 and a Ph. D. in Medical
Information Science from the University of California at San Francisco
in 1976.  He has been elected fellow of the ACMI, the IEEE and the
ACM.  He currently serves on the ACM Publications Board,
focusing on the move to electronic publication.


Barbara Simons received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley
in 1981.  She joined the Research Division of IBM in 1980;
she is currently working in IBM Global Services.
Simons is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS) and ACM.  In 1995 she was selected as one of 26 Internet
"Visionaries" by c|net, and in 1994 Open Computing included her in its list
of the top 100 women in computing.  She was awarded the 1992 CPSR Norbert
Wiener Award for Professional and Social Responsibility in Computing.
Simons founded and chairs USACM, the ACM U. S. Public Policy Committee.