On July 2, more than 130 people from 28 countries gathered at the nation's oldest university -- Harvard -- to compare notes on the newest of legal issues -- cyberlaw.
The gathering was part of the first-ever Summer Internet Law Program at Harvard Law School, a kind of Internet law summer camp that ran from July 2 to July 6 at Harvard's Cambridge, Massachusetts campus. The program, which was sponsored by the college's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, featured a series of lectures and seminars by five distinguished professors specializing in Internet law. The professors spoke at length about such controversial topics as copyright protection on the Internet, the digital distribution of music, cybercrime, jurisdiction, free speech, and privacy.
The five professors who participated in the conference were:
Yochai Benkler, who is a law professor at New York University and the Director of the Engleberg Center for Innovation Law and Policy and of the Information Law Institute. Professor Benkler has written extensively about telecommunications and broadcast law, intellectual property, privacy, e-commerce, and constitutional law.
William Fisher III, who is a law professor at Harvard and the Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Professor Fisher teaches intellectual property in cyberspace and American legal history, and he is currently working on several publications about intellectual property and digital music.
Lawrence Lessig, who is a law professor at Stanford Law School and teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, comparative constitutional law, and the law of cyberspace. He is also a monthly columnist for "The Industry Standard" and a board member with RedHat Center for Open Source.
Charles Nesson, who is the Weld Professor of Law at Harvard and is also a computer enthusiast. He teaches classes in Internet law, torts, criminal law, advocacy, ethics, and evidence and has spoken about Internet governance, ICANN, and open versus closed architecture.
Jonathan Zittrain, who is the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and served as its first executive director from 1997-2000. His research includes digital property, privacy, speech, and the role played by private individuals in Internet architecture. He teaches classes in cyberlaw, Internet and society, and the Microsoft case.
"CyberCrime's" Alex Wellen attended the conference and was able to sit down with these five professors to speak at length about the current state and the future of the law as it relates to cyberspace. Click here for a complete transcript of the one-on-five interview he conducted, or click on the video icons to the right to see video clips from the meeting.
