BCLT/BTLJ Law & Technology Roundtable Series OVERPROTECTION OR JUST COMPENSATION: Can Database Legislation Survive a Constitutional Challenge? Database owners cry piracy Legislators struggle to find a way to stop this piracy Constitutional scholars fear restrictions of free speech Economists ask, "Where's the market failure?" Monday, January 31, 2000 12:30 to 2:00 The Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley Two radically different bills pending before the House of Representatives — the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act (H.R. 354) and the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act (H.R. 1858) — seek to protect the interests of the database industry and congressional members' campaign funds by privatizing many uses of information already in the public domain. Established publishers favor the overly broad protection of "collections of information" afforded by H.R. 354. "New media" organizations and educational institutions vehemently oppose H.R. 354 and demand "narrower" prohibitions like those present in H.R. 1858. Are there adequate incentives for database owners to produce and maintain sufficient access to information? Would these bills encourage investment in databases at the expense of the public at large and future creators? Has Congress found a way to overstep the bounds of the First Amendment through the Intellectual Property Clause? Is legislation the right response to the problems of "piracy" of information? Featured Speakers Yochai Benkler, Associate Professor of Law, New York University, and former law clerk to Justice Breyer. Prof. Benkler's presentation will be based on his forthcoming article, "Constitutional Bounds of Database Protection: The Role of Judicial Review in the Creation and Definition of Private Rights in Information." forthcoming in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal Spring 2000 Symposium issue on constitutional law and technology. Suzanne Scotchmer, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley The roundtable discussion was moderated by Pamela Samuelson, Professor of Law and Information Management, UC Berkeley. For more information, please contact: Larry Trask Berkeley Center for Law & Technology 510-642-8073 ltrask@law.berkeley.edu