The Information Society Project Lunch Speaker Series welcomes:
Frances Grodzinsky
Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology
Sacred Heard University
and
Herman Tavani
Professor of Philosophy
Rivier College
who will be presenting
The Verizon v. RIAA Case Revisited:
Some Further Reflections on the Tension Between Privacy and Property Interests
December 19, 2007
12:10p - 1:30p
Yale Law School
Room 128
Lunch and presentation to be followed by Q&A
Abstract from original paper (2005):
In this paper, we examine some ethical implications of a controversial court decision in the United States involving Verizon (an Internet Service Provider or ISP) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In particular, we analyze the impacts this decision has for personal privacy and intellectual property. We begin with a brief description of the controversies and rulings in this case. This is followed by a look at some of the challenges that peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, used to share digital information, pose for our legal and moral systems. We then examine the concept of privacy to better understand how the privacy of Internet users participating in P2P file-sharing practices is threatened under certain interpretations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States. In particular, we examine the implications of this act for a new form of ‘‘panoptic surveillance’’ that can be carried out by organizations such as the RIAA. We next consider the tension between privacy and property-right interests that emerges in the Verizon case, and we examine a model proposed by Jessica Litman for distributing information over the Internet in a way that respects both privacy and property rights. We conclude by arguing that in the Verizon case, we should presume in favor of privacy as the default position, and we defend the view that a presumption should be made in favor of sharing (rather than hoarding) digital information. We also conclude that in the Verizon case, a presumption in favor of property would have undesirable effects and would further legitimize the commodification of digital information – a recent trend that is reinforced by certain interpretations of the DMCA on the part of lawmakers and by aggressive tactics used by the RIAA.
Biographies:
Frances Grodzinsky, PhD is a professor of Computer Science and Information Technology at Sacred Heart University where she is co-chair of the Hersher Institute of Ethics. She is also a Visiting Scholar, Research Center on Computer Ethics and Social Responsibility, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT and serves on the board of INSEIT (the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology). She has been involved in the field of Computer Ethics since 1991 and has numerous publications.
Herman Tavani, is Professor of Philosophy at Rivier College and (effective Jan 1, 2008) President of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT). He also holds appointments as a visiting scholar/ethicist at the Harvard School of Public Health, and as a visiting lecturer at Boston College where he teaches ethics courses in the Carroll School of Management. His recent books include Ethics and Technology (Wiley, 2nd ed. 2007); Ethics, Computing, and Genomics (Jones and Bartlett, 2006); The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (forthcoming from Wiley in 2008), co-edited with Kenneth Himma; and two anthologies co-edited with Richard Spinello: Intellectual Property Rights in a Networked World (Idea Group, 2005) and Readings in CyberEthics (Jones and Bartlett, 2nd ed. 2004).
Michael Zimmer, PhD
Microsoft Resident Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
e: michael.zimmer@yale.edu
w: http://michaelzimmer.org