September 22 - New York Law School - On Monday, September 22, the Institute for Information Law at New York Law School hosted another in a series of lunch colloquia featuring Professor Ethan Katsh, a Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Co-Director of the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution.  The discussion focused on a project that Professor Katsh completed over this past summer with the assitance of New York Law School students Jeremy Hollander and Sal Piscopo. Together they developed an On-line database for the Uniform Dispute Resolution Database which provides Internet users, worldwide, with free access to legal precedents regarding disputes over Web domain addresses. 

Read a more in depth view on the project and those involved here

July 16 - Board Room, New York Law School - the weekly lunch colloquium hosted by The Institute for Information Law & Policy was privileged to have Professor Bernd Holznagel as a guest to discuss his paper: "Responsibility for Harmful and Illegal Content on the Internet." Professor Holznagel is the Director of the Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law  at the University of Muenster in Germany and is a leading figure in this area of law.

During the colloquium, the group discussed the German approach to the central issue of cyber law, how the European Union is creating uniform law to address cyber law issues, and the comparative approaches to liability for hate speech on-line. At the forefront of the discussion was a comparison between cyber laws in Germany, Europe as a whole, and the United States. Professor Holznagel presented the reasons for Germany’s strict approach to criminalizing hate speech on the Internet, which was expanded to address the conflicts between German law and United States’ law given the United States’ First Amendment rights which would prohibit the kind of regulation instituted by the Germans. Concluding this discussion, it was determined that the Internet still presents, and will continue to present, interesting challenges as there are many international implications associated with the Internet, one of which is that posting information on the Internet can be legal in one country but can make the publisher a criminal in another.  Click here for a copy of Professor Holznagel’s paper "Responsibility for Harmful and Illegal Content on the Internet."   Posted by Diane O'Connell.

July 9 – Silk Road MoCha, Chinatown

The Institute welcomed Professor Rene Peralta, Research Scientist from the Department of Computer Science at Yale University.  During the colloquium, Professor Peralta probed the question concerning what the future holds for the new technological instruments of citizen participation.  Particularly, in reference to the notion of electronic voting and internet-based approaches to the election process. Students had a chance to understand the mechanics and issues as raised from the perspective of a computer scientist. While some Luddites and even some technology experts oppose the entire idea of online elections, others think that it may be the best thing that ever set upon us, possibly liberating the politicians dormant within.  Peralta took the position that "the Internet has a valuable role to play in enhancing democratic processes." The discussion elicited questions about the various obstacles encountered when utilizing the internet for participatory processes.  Determining solutions to the myriad of concerns must be done in a holistic fashion, since no single problem may really be addressed in a solitary state.  The engaging dialogue also honed in on elements of a working evoting system and the proper balance between technology and legislation.  For example, security and credibility may be accomplished with modern cryptography such as public-key, blind signatures, or homomorphic algorithms.  This alone will not win public trust, legislation must also be enacted to ensure the integrity and fairness of the election.  Ultimately, a working model for online election processes must involve a happy marriage between policy and technology. Posted by Chun Li.

July 1, The Markle Foundation, Rockefeller Center - Internet Survey in China

Beginning last year, Professor Guo Liang, Deputy Director of the Center for Studies in Social Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, conducted major surveys in five large cities and five smaller cities (still a population of 50,000 in the smaller cities) in China.  The main purpose of Guo’s research is to understand the interaction of new media technologies and the economic, social and cultural life of China.  

The methodology of this research consists of three aspects: general attitude towards the Internet, the usage of the Internet, and its impact on media, communications and politics.  Guo concluded his interim results by highlighting several important findings.  First, the general attitude towards the Internet is greatly influenced by the media.  Second, Internet is associated with information and entertainment, rather than commercial activities such as banking and shopping.  Third, most users of the Internet are young and educated males between the age of 16 – 25.  Fourth, Internet users put more trust in the traditional media than information they receive from the Internet.  Fifth, Internet users believe that the Internet will bring about an open government.  Finally, the Internet has fostered relationships between users who share common interests.  

An interesting aspect of Internet usage in China is the frequent use of text messaging.  The media in China coined the name, “Finger Nation” for China herself because of this phenomenon.  Though Guo has not yet compared his research with that of the trend in the United States, the interim results suggested a pattern of usage and attitude similar to that of the United States about ten years ago.  Undoubtedly, the “Finger Nation” will catch up with its counterparts in the United States in the very near future.

Given the Chinese government’s continuous crackdown on Internet cafes, and a proposal to license only selective ISPs, Guo was hesitant to address issues of freedom of expression in his talk which he considered too sensitive.  Freedom of expression continues to be a roadblock in the democratic movement in China.  Now that the Internet has reached approximately 60 million users, it is up to the Chinese government to take advantage of this tool to bring forth a civil society. Posted by Marianne Law.

June 25 – Silk Road MoCha, Chinatown – This week, the Institute team welcomed

Brian G. Murphy, a partner at the law firm of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, PC, to discuss his practice encompassing advertising, marketing, intellectual property, and entertainment law. The team prepared beforehand by reading recent entertainment/IP cases suggested by Mr. Murphy where plaintiffs have invoked federal trademark and state right of publicity law in an attempt to defeat unauthorized uses of their likenesses by defendants.  Using engaging real world examples and visuals, Mr. Murphy discussed the challenge of distinguishing the roles laws such as the First Amendment, Rights to Publicity and the Lanham Act, § 43(a) play when the lines blur between marketing and entertainment.  Posted by Lane Buschel

June 12, The Markle Foundation, Rockefeller Center - Today, "IT" is a term that is usually identified with electronic handheld device such as PDAs, Palm Pilot and Blackberry.  Voxiva, Inc, a voice and data solution provider dedicated to public health, has put telephones back on the "IT" list. Voxiva designs an application platform which uses easy-to-use phone and web-based solutions to address a broad range of communication and information collection issues.  Paul Meyer, Co-Founder of Voxiva, Inc, is very much aware of the serious obstacles that health officials in developed and developing countries face in collecting and communicating essential information on a timely basis.  Often, a long time has passed before decision-makers have access to the data they need, due to the lack of Internet access and the paper-based data collection process. Voxiva's technology platform is designed to solve these two primary practical problems: to collect data in real time from large numbers of people, and to enable communications and messaging services that affect immediate change. The application platform achieves these goals by taking the data collection to the field, which allows frontline health workers to interact in real-time with regional, national and other health providers from any telephone or Internet access device.  About a year ago, Voxiva launched a pilot disease surveillance application program in helping the Peruvian Health Ministry get better information from healthcare workers in the Andes and other isolated villages of the country.  The goal is to enable the Ministry to better respond to outbreaks and increase understanding of health patterns across the country.  This pilot program uses community payphones as a communication tool for rural healthcare providers to submit touch-tone disease reports.  Simple instruction cards with pictures are given out as a guide to use the voicemail system, in which healthcare providers key in data such as symptoms and reactions.  This procedure has turned the Peruvian village into a reporting device. Once submitted, data is written directly into the health department network serving the more populous areas of Peru.  The system includes automated data storage, geographical analysis through visualizing the data with integrated geographic information systems (GIS) mapping applications, and response mechanisms to alert all key actors and surrounding communities of the most serious of cases.   When specific diseases are reported, the system generates emergency notifications via email, voicemail, pager and text messages according to dynamic parameters. The application platform is a solution that can be adopted by any end user, regardless of their level of technological sophistication or the type of communications device available to them at any given time.  Given its great portability to any network environment, the Voxiva system has been used by the U.S. Defense Department in monitoring adverse reactions to smallpox vaccinations.  Under a recent USAID contract, the system will soon be deployed for health surveillance in Iraq.  Other applications include organ donations and crime reports in Peru. More importantly, the system is sustainable.  It has significant advantages compared with satellite technology, which is a good solution for emergency response but is cost-prohibitive for more routine work in many countries. Starting with an idea to innovate at the bottom of the pyramid, Voxiva succeeded in bridging the digital divide which hinders social advancement, by enabling the government to interact systematically with the grassroots through low cost and simple information technology. For more Voxiva projects please go to www.voxiva.net.  Posted by Marianne Law.

June 11, Wellington Center, New York Law School - This was a working lunch for the Institute's research teams to apprise each other of their progress and continue work in preparation for our upcoming trip to Washington, DC.

June 4 - Yello! Restaurant, Chinatown - On June 4, NYLS alumnus Steven Heymann of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) joined the Institute team for lunch at the hip Chinatown restaurant Yello. In his role as Vice President, Business Affairs, Mr. Heymann spoke about how the ESRB, an independent, self-regulatory body comprised of over 350 software publishers, applies ratings and advertising guidelines adopted by the computer and video gaming industry. In a lively discussion, Steve answered questions about how the rating system works, how games are rated, and how the ratings are enforced. He also addressed the business implications of ratings on retail distribution and the role that the ESRB?s Advertising Review Council (ARC) plays in ensuring responsible advertising and marketing practices of video games. For more information on the Entertainment Software Rating Board see www.esrb.org.  Posted by Deborah Newman.