DRM Conference Map (new)

The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology (BCLT) and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ) have held annual conferences on important law and technology issues for each of the past six years. The single most important reason to focus this year's conference on the law and policy issues pertaining to digital rights management (DRM) technologies arises from Senator Hollings' proposed "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act," S. 2048, which would, among other things, outlaw general purpose computers and most open source software by requiring that devices and software capable of playing digital content have standard DRM technologies built into them. It would also make the government an arbiter of the technologies to be mandated.

By hosting this conference, BCLT and BTLJ expect to attract a broad audience of high tech lawyers, information technology and content industry representatives, technologists, and some policymakers, about 250 people altogether. One goal is to educate this audience about usage of DRMs to protect digital content and the social impacts of DRMs. A second goal is to raise the level of discourse about DRM law and policy issues, generating more light than heat. This discourse needs to be cross-disciplinary and it needs to be cross-industry sector. Eight invited papers will be published in a symposium volume of BTLJ following the conference. These articles, as well as discourse among panelists, will contribute to the policy debate and to the literature on DRM law and policy issues.

1:00-3:00
Tutorial on DRM technology
Drew Dean, SRI; Barb Fox, Microsoft Corp.; Brian LaMacchia, Microsoft Corp.

3:30-5:30
Tutorial on legal and policy landscape regarding DRM
Pam Samuelson, Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley

Feb. 28
Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business

8:45-10:30
DRM as an enabler of business models
Carl Shapiro, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley (moderator)
David Reed, Cable Labs
Allan Adler, Association of American Publishers
Bob Blakley, IBM Corp.
Donald M. Whiteside, Intel Corp.
Cary Sherman, Recording Industry Association of America
Lon Sobel, Entertainment Law Reporter (paper on ISPs as digital retailers)
Sarah Deutsch, Verizon Communications



11-12:30
Impacts of DRMs on innovation, competition, & security
Hal Varian, SIMS, UC Berkeley (moderator)
David Farber, Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania
John Manferdelli, Microsoft Corp.
Lucky Green, cypherpunks.to
Alex Alben, RealNetworks, Inc.

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-3:00
Impacts of DRMs on flows of information
David Wagner, Computer Science, UC Berkeley (moderator)
Hal Abelson, MIT
Edward Felten, Computer Science, Princeton University
Joe Liu, Boston College Law School (paper on DMCA and research)
Larry Lessig, Stanford Law School (paper on Creative Commons)
John Erickson, Hewlett Packard

3:30-5:00
Impacts of DRMs on consumers
Chris Murray, Consumers Union (moderator)
Julie Cohen, Georgetown Univ. Law School (paper on DRM & privacy)
Joan Feigenbaum, Computer Science, Yale University
Raymond Ku, Seton Hall Law School (paper on private copying)
Anita Ramasastry, Univ. of Washington Law School (paper on consumer
protection issues)
Tomas Sander, Hewlett Packard

March 1
Bancroft Hotel

8:30-8:55
David Nelson Memorial Keynote Address: A Voice from Congress on DRM
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-California)

9:00-10:45
DRM-related legal and policy initiatives in the U.S.
Pamela Samuelson, Boalt Hall (moderator)
Fritz Attaway, Motion Picture Association of America
Jerry Berman, Center for Democracy and Technology
Ed Black, Computer & Communications Industry Association
Richard Epstein, U. of Chicago Law School
Jon Healey, LA Times
Emery Simon, Business Software Alliance
Mozelle Thompson, Federal Trade Commission

11:15-12:00
Anti-circumvention regulations in the US and elsewhere
Mark Lemley, Boalt Hall (moderator)
Graeme Dinwoodie, Chicago Kent LS (paper on European
implementation of anti-circumvention rules)
Bernt Hugenholtz, Univ. of Amsterdam, Information Law Institute
Tony Reese, Univ. of Texas Law School (paper on influence of anti-
circumvention rules on DRM choices)