CONTRIBUTORS
Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs,
Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law.
"Sound Policy" is Denise's show at
IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at
dhowell@gmail.com.
Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read
blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his
gmail address.
Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at
tmighell@swbell.net.
Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded
The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at
marty@schwimmerlegal.com.
Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog
Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally,
to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at
esvenson@gmail.com.
Denise Howell
Dennis M. Kennedy
Tom Mighell
Marty Schwimmer
Ernest Svenson
1. Warwick A Rothnie on June 11, 2005 5:01 AM writes...
Great thread, guys.
Speaking in the days when all there was to worry about was "home taping", but equally applicable in a networked, digital world, Lord Templeman declared:
" From the point of view of society the present position is lamentable. Millions of breaches of the law must be committed by home copiers every year. Some home copiers may break the law in ignorance, despite extensive publicity and warning notices on records, tapes and films. Some home copiers may break the law because they estimate that the chances of detection are non-existent. Some home copiers may consider that the entertainment and recording industry already exhibit all the characteristics of undesirable monopoly — lavish expenses, extravagant earnings and exorbitant profits — and that the blank tape is the only restraint on further increases in the prices of records. Whatever the reason for home copying the beat of Sergeant Pepper and the soaring sounds of the Miserere from unlawful copies are more powerful than law-abiding instincts or twinges of conscience. A law which is treated with such contempt should be amended or repealed. "
CBS v Amstrad (1988, House of Lords UK)
Would there be so much downloading and peer 2 peering if the law wasn't so patently wrong and what else does it lead to?
Interestingly, while US debates seem to suggest creation of a "personal use" space, European commentators note that the EU's Information Society Directive has moved in the opposite direction. The justification for personal use freedoms in an analogue world (the intrusion into privacy) has been replaced with the copyright owners' claims of personal contracting and licensing made possible through the cyberspace jukebox.
More prosaically, those of us who live in the Musical Third World (no iTunes Music Store DownUnder because, apparently, one major record lable won't go along for the ride) probably have a lot more to worry about.
One of the Australian collecting societies routinely points out that digital storage brings so much convenience and replaces so many copies that there is a clear economic benefit derived by the user which the copyright owner should be able to tap.
We also have a governmental inquiry into what to do . The copyright collecting societies have made lots of submissions indicating why these could become real issues.
Permalink to Comment