Panels

* For Additional Sessions, created by some of our guests, click here

Keynote Speakers
Dan Geer - Principal, Geer Risk Services , Verdasys, Inc.
"The Physics of Digital Law" If all politics are local, define "local." If the practice of law is the search for analogies, describe how you form them when the time constants of digital crime are four orders of magnitude different than the physical world and jurisdiction is an assertion rather than a fact. If all your evidence is bits, then what is "truth"? How is it that a toaster carries liability but a program does not? What can we measure and where will it lead us? If digital law is an idea whose time has come, then let's base it on facts. We have more facts than you think, but they are not what you think they are.

John Podesta - Former Chief of Staff to President Clinton; President and CEO, Center for American Progress
"Lost In Cyberspace? Finding American Liberties in a Dangerous, Digital World"

Panel Descriptions

1) New Crime Scene: The Digital Networked Environment

Speakers:
Jennifer Granick - Executive Director, Stanford Law School, Center for Internet & Society, "Computer Crimes and Intermediary Liability: The Case for Protecting Vulnerability Publications"
Helen Nissenbaum - Associate Professor, Department of Culture & Communication and Senior Fellow, Information Law Institute, New York University, "Where Computer Security Meets National Security"
Philip R. Reitinger - presenting David Aucsmith's (Architect, Security Business Unit, Microsoft Corporation) paper, "The Digital Crime Scene: A Software Prospective"
Tony Rutkowski - Vice-President, NetDiscovery Development, Verisign, Inc., Telecommunications Services Division, "Cybercrime in New Network Ecosystem:
Vulnerabilities and New Forensic Capabilities"

Moderator:
Shlomit Wagman - Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School Digitization, anonymity, connectivity, decentralization, and interdependencies are new features of the networked environment that affect criminal behavior and redefine the risks the new crime scene presents. This panel will explore the nexus between criminal behavior and the physical and the social features of the Internet. The networked environment is empowering, but it also exposes us to unrecognized vulnerabilities and risks, that must be examined.

Questions before this panel may include:
- How can we design our digital architecture in order to reduce risks of criminal conduct and vulnerability? How can we design processes of risk sorting appropriate for the interconnected environment? Should we limit the extent of interdependency and connectivity to reduce the risk of “domino effects”?
- How can we ensure the development of secure software? How do we construct liability rules for a networked environment?
- How ought we educate the public about the unique vulnerabilities of this environment? How do we inform users about vulnerabilities without encouraging misuse of this knowledge by wrongdoers?

2) New Crimes: Virtual Crimes of the Information Age

Speakers:
Alan Davidson - Associate Director, Center for Democracy and Technology, "Cautionary Notes on the Expansion of Criminal Law in Cyberspace"
Beryl Howell - Managing Director, General Counsel, Stroz Friedberg, LLC, "Real World Problems of Virtual Crimes"
Philip R. Reitinger - Senior Security Strategist, Trustworthy Computing Security Team, Microsoft Corporation, "Ten Commandments of Online Criminal Law"
Dan Solove - Associate Professor, Seton Hall Law School, "The Legal Construction of Identity Theft"

Moderator:
Eddan Katz - Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School The networked environment allows greater efficiency and convenience but also creates new opportunities for the misuse of information. This panel will consider how the availability and accessibility of vast amounts of information can facilitate “old” crimes and introduce “new” crimes, including pure information crimes. Third-party misappropriation of trade secrets over the Internet, economic espionage, the unauthorized access of encrypted virtual spaces, computer fraud, and dissemination of circumvention programs are some of the activities that are increasingly carrying criminal penalties. Furthermore, in the digital networked environment, new forms of authentication are introduced, which lead to new forms of identity-theft.

Questions before this panel may include:
- When does infringement or misappropriation become a crime? Are criminal remedies necessary for deterrence in a digital world due to the exponential magnitude of the potential harm? What is the proper role of the state in prosecuting activities when there are civil remedies already in place?
- Should pure information crimes be treated differently than traditional crimes? How should we rethink the concept of crime and the purposes of criminalization in the new environment? Are different legal rationales conflated in the criminalization of intellectual property? Is the damage caused by such crimes significantly different in a networked world?
- Is there a trade-off between the increased availability of information about persons over the Internet and the potential for that information to be used to commit identity fraud? Do we need to rethink ownership of data about oneself in creating a more secure information environment?

3) New Cops: Rethinking Law Enforcement

Speakers:
Susan Brenner - Professor of Law & Technology, University of Dayton School of Law, "Distributed Security: Moving Away from a Reactive Model of Law Enforcement"
Curtis E.A. Karnow - Partner, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, "Launch on Warning - Aggressive Defense of Computer Systems"
Orin Kerr - Professor, George Washington University Law School, "Computer Crime and the Coming Revolution in Criminal Procedure"
Nimrod Kozlovski - Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project, "Designing Accountable Online Policing"

Moderator:
James Grimmelmann - Yale Law School Traditional notions of centralized intelligence gathering, risk management and the imposition of sanctions exclusively controlled by the state are increasingly moving towards decentralization, privatization, and delegation of powers to non-governmental entities. Public-private collaborations, self-help measures, private guards, community vigilance and collective sanctioning have been proposed. This panel will discuss the policy implications of this paradigm shift in law enforcement.

Questions before this panel may include:
- Does the new information environment force us to change the concept of law enforcement? Should the state delegate its power to use force in a decentralized environment?
- How can we protect civil liberties and constitutional rights when law is enforced by non-governmental entities? Can we hold the law enforcer accountable when the institutional and technological structures change? How should we construct and monitor the public-private collaborations in law enforcement?
- Should we legalize self-help measures and private enforcement? Are new problems introduced by replacing human discretion with automated monitoring? How will sanctions change when the sanctioning is invisible, decentralized and privatized? What is the role of the community in sanctioning bad behavior and how can we design technology to strengthen collective enforcement?

4) New Tools - Design, Technology, Control, Data Mining and Surveillance

Speakers:
Michael Froomkin - Professor, University of Miami, "ID Cards (Or, Thoughts on What's at Stake in the Hiibel Case)"
Marc Rotenberg - Executive Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center, "Escrow is Dead. Long Live Escrow"
Kim Taipale - Executive Director, Center for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Policy, "Technology, Security and Privacy: The Fear of Frankenstein, the Myth of Privacy and the Lessons of King Ludd"

Sonia Katyal - Associate Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
Conference Writing Competition's Winner - "The New Surveillance"

Moderator:
Tal Zarsky - Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School The new digital environment offers new tools to maintain the peace and enforce the law. Law enforcement agencies have sophisticated means of surveillance and control at their disposal as well as the enhanced ability to analyze vast amounts of information. These technological tools can deter illegal activity, investigate crime, collect information, and track down criminals more efficiently. In addition, advanced analysis applications and data mining tools can preempt crimes before they occur by identifying patterns of behavior and neutralizing threats before they are actualized.

Questions before this panel may include:
- Will the deterrence element of these new tools inhibit not only crime, but also socially valuable forms of activity? How do we prevent tools of enforcement from turning into means of control and oppression?
- Will elaborate forms of surveillance impede constitutional and human rights? Can people enjoy privacy and intimacy in a total surveillance environment?
- What are the dangers in employing advanced forms of analysis to solve and even preempt crimes? Are the computer models used prone to error or do they violate the rights of the innocent?

5) New Trials and Sanctions - e-Prosecution, e-Jurisdiction and e-Punishment

Speakers:
Joe Anastasi - Global Practice Leader, Dispute Consulting & Forensics Investigations, Deloitte & Touche, LLP "CyberForensics – New Requirements for our Legal Systems"
Paul Ohm- Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, CCIPS Division
Lee Tien - Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation, "Law, Technology, and the Danger of Architectural Regulation"

Nicolai Seitz - Fellow, University of Cologne (Germany)
Conference Writing Competition's Winner - "Transborder Search a New Perspective in Law Enforcement?"

Moderator:
Dan Kahan - Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Yale Law School The law enforcement system also includes prosecutors, courts, public defenders, and prisons. The processes of investigation, prosecution, litigation and imposition of sanctions must also be revisited in the new digital environment. For example, evidence introduced in court may lack the necessary authenticity in digital form due to its susceptibility to manipulation. Geographical rules of jurisdiction fail to follow the geography of information flows. Sanctions can be imposed invisibly and automatically without human discretion. Such changes require reconstructing and adapting criminal procedure rules to the information environment.

Questions before this panel may include:
- Should digital evidence be treated differently than other forms of evidence? How should the rules of admissibility and authenticity be redesigned in this new environment? What is the role of the technological means of authentication, such as digital signatures, in the evidentiary process?
- How should jurisdiction with regard to criminal acts be defined for digital border-crossing and for virtual crimes?
- How should we regulate the process of electronic searches? What forms of automated and technologically-assisted forms of information gathering should be considered acceptable and reasonable? Should we rethink the process of seizure in the digital context?
- Does the possibility of total surveillance allow house arrests and other forms of punishment that involve less physical hardship?6) Hacktivism - Between Crime and Activism

Speakers:
Jack Balkin - Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment; Director, Information Society Project, Yale Law School, "Cyberprotest"
Oxblood Ruffin - Executive Director & Founder, Cult of the Dead cow, "Hacktivism, from Here to There"
Jonathan Zittrain - Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society; Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard Law School, "Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China"

Moderator:
Beth Noveck - Director, Institute for Information Law and Policy; Associate Professor, New York Law SchoolSocial movements use technology in unconventional ways as means of resistance and counter-surveillance. As the landscape of activism changes, the legal distinction between crime, social activism and terror blurs in the information environment. Groups and individuals can disseminate confidential information, circumvent access controls, masquerade as their opponents, and solicit support through novel methods such as online protests, hacking, virtual sit-ins, denial of service attacks and website defacement. Moreover, technology can empower individuals to resist intrusive law enforcement efforts and hold non-transparent governance accountable. The networked environment has also introduced international information warfare such as the cyber conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the Kosovo citizens' disruption of service on government computers and web site hijacks, and the destruction of terror organizations' websites by hackers.

Questions before this panel may include:
- What is the line between legitimate political speech, political activity, and criminal action? Should hacking with a political motive, such as the defacement of a website, constitute a form of legitimate political speech? Is civil disobedience in the networked environment possible without the commission of what is now considered crime?
- Can we effectively regulate information warfare? What means of regulation should be used to deal with resistance and activism?
- How can technology be used to control the controller? How can counter-surveillance technologies empower individuals vis-à-vis the government?