Berkman Lunch: Wendy Seltzer October 31, 2006

Topic: Unwag the Dog: How copyright is misdirecting technology policy, with some thoughts on turning it around

Only a small part of modern copyright policy is aimed at protecting artists and authors. Much more effort is spent insulating entertainment businesses from competition. Anticircumvention law lets businesses leverage copyright's limited monopoly into power over hardware and software design, while extensions of secondary liability rules give the old veto power over the new. In the name of protecting creativity, modern copyright is squashing it. Can new artists help us break the deadlock by being creative in their distribution models as well as in their art? Can technology inspire creators to think differently about their measures of success? Can we take back technology and copyright? Tune in for a wide-ranging discussion.

Wendy Seltzer is a visiting assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School, where she teaches Internet Law and Privacy. She was previously a staff attorney with Electronic Frontier Foundation, focused on intellectual property and free speech issues. Prior to joining EFF, Wendy taught Internet Law as an Adjunct Professor at St. John's University School of Law and was an intellectual property and technology associate with Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel in New York. She is a 1999 graduate of Harvard Law School and a 1996 graduate of Harvard College. Wendy also founded and leads the Chilling Effects clearinghouse, a project to study and combat the ungrounded legal threats that chill activity on the Internet.

Bio: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
Blog: http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog

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