Seminars

The Music Wars over Digital Intellectual Property

Date: October 8, 2002
Location: 102 Lerner Hall 2000 H St. NW, Washington DC
Time: 6:10 pm-7:30 pm

Panelists:
James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law
at Duke Law School
Stanley Pierre-Louis, Vice President, Legal Affairs,
Recording Industry Association of America

Moderator: Lance J. Hoffman, Professor, GW Computer Science

Over the last ten years, the music industry has been at the center of the controversies about digital intellectual property. Service such as Napster made perfect copies of any recording instantaneously available anywhere in the world. How can copyright owners, musicians, songwriters and distribution networks be supported in such a world? The legislative responses that the music industry, and other industries, have supported, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and current legislative proposals to require that copy protection systems be built into computers and other digital devices, have in turn been criticized for their potential effects on privacy, speech, and the architecture of the Internet.

At the same time, there have been a variety of constitutional challenges to intellectual property expansions: indeed, the Supreme Court will be hearing an important case the day after this debate. Have the Music Wars been won or lost? Should the DMCA be expanded, repealed or struck down as unconstitutional? Is the Internet we are planning a safe haven for artists and creators, or a digital panopticon where usage and expression are pervasively monitored? Or, more interestingly, is the Internet something else altogether?

Speaker Biographical Sketches
Professor James Boyle teaches intellectual property law at Duke Law School. He is the author of Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society and is now working on a book on the public domain. He writes widely on issues of intellectual property, internet regulation and legal theory. Professor Boyle is a member of the academic advisory board of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, and the board of Creative Commons.

As Vice President, Legal Affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America, Stanley Pierre-Louis has played a substantial role in several landmark copyright litigation matters, including: Napster, MP3.com, Scour, and Aimster. Mr. Pierre-Louis is a graduate of Clark University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and of the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as an Editor of the Law Review. Prior to joining the RIAA, Mr. Pierre-Louis clerked for Judge David A. Nelson of the United States Court of the Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, then joined the law firm of Shea & Gardner in Washington DC, where he specialized in the areas of copyright and constitutional law.

Mr. Pierre-Louis currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, a non-profit organization that provides pro bono legal services to artists and sponsors law-related educational programs. Mr. Pierre-Louis also serves on the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Law School, a board that advises the Law School Dean and University President. Society and is now working on a book on the public domain. He writes widely on issues of intellectual property, internet regulation and legal theory. Professor Boyle is a member of the academic advisory board of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, and the board of Creative Commons.