[DMCA-Activists] "Regulating Search?" Symposium - Dec. 5

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
 Subject: [fairuse-talk] Yale ISP "Regulating Search?" Symposium
- Dec. 5
    Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 14:03:55 -0500
    From: Eddan Katz <address@hidden>
      To: address@hidden


Regulating Search?

A Symposium on Search Engines, Law, and Public Policy

December 3, 2005

Yale Law School
New Haven, CT


> http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/regulatingsearch.html


Search is big business, and search functionality increasingly
shapes the information  society. Yet how the law treats search is
still up for grabs, and with it, the power to  dominate the next
generation of the online world. How will this potential to wield
control  affect search engine companies, their advertisers, their
users, or the information they  index? What will search engines
look like in the future, and what is the role of regulators in 
this emerging market?

The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is proud to
present "Regulating  Search?: A Symposium on Search Engines, Law,
and Public Policy," the first academic  conference devoted to
search engines and the law.  "Regulating Search?" will take place
on  December 3, 2005 at Yale Law School in New Haven, CT.

This event will bring together representatives from the search
industry, government, civil  society, and academia to discuss the
emerging intersection of search engines and various  forms of
regulation.  It is made possible by the generous support of the
Microsoft  Corporation, Google, Inc., and the Knight Foundation.

A distinguished group of experts will map out the terrain of
search engine law & policy in  four panels: (1) The Search Space;
(2) Search Engines and Public Regulation; (3) Search  Engines and
Intellectual Property; and (4) Search Engines and Individual
Rights.  A  detailed description of these four panels is included
below and the current list of  confirmed speakers will be
available on the conference website.

Registration for the conference and further information are
available at 
http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/regulatingsearch.html. Early
Bird registration is $35 for  students, $75 for academic and
nonprofit participants, and $165 for corporate and law firm 
participants. Early Bird registration ends on Nov. 15.


Regulating Search?
A Symposium on Search Engines, Law, and Public Policy

Panel 1: The Search Space
This panel will review the wide range of what search engines do
and their importance in  the information ecosystem. It will
survey the pressures search engines face, the  technologies they
employ, and the constituencies they must serve. It will frame the
question,  to be explored throughout the day, of whether search
is a matter that requires specific  regulatory intervention and a
special set of legal rules for its governing. In this panel, 
industry participants, computer scientists, and analysts will
flag major trends in search  engine technology and try to predict
future developments, with the goal of pointing out  those trends
that will create new conflicts and new litigation.

Some questions the panelists may ask include:

    How competitive will the search engine market be in five
years?
    Who will be creating the next generation of search
innovations: large corporate entities or judgment-proof
individuals?
    Will the rise of geography-based search change our
assumptions about such questions as privacy, jurisdiction, and
censorship?
    What's next in personalized search?
    What's next in decentralized peer-to-peer search?
    Will vertical search upend our intuitions about what a search
engine does?
    Do search companies think of legal risks when they make
development decisions?
    What kinds of services will search merge with?


Panel 2: Search Engines and Public Regulation
This panel will discuss the possibility of direct government
regulation of search  functionality. Such regulation might
proceed under several jurisdictional heads (e.g.  antitrust,
consumer protection, or telecommunications) with any of a number
of possible  policy goals. Where one or a few search engines
achieve dominance over a particular  aspect of search, the
possibility of such regulation seems more imminent. This panel
will  discuss who might regulate search, why, and how.

Some questions the panelists may ask include:

    Do search engines have First Amendment or Takings Clause
rights that would preclude certain forms of regulation?
    Should government regulators intervene to make sure that the
search market stays competitive?
    Should search engines be subjected to an informational
equivalent of common-carrier rules?
    Is there an obligation to provide evenhanded listing of
sites? Evenhanded listing of results?
    Should search engines be required to disclose their
commercial sponsors? Their algorithms?
    Should consumers be protected from bad search results? From
having their search results malevolently altered?
    Does the recent spate of security breaches at database
companies portend similar trouble for search companies?
    Should search engines be afraid of anti-spyware legislation?
Of anti-spam legislation?


Panel 3: Search Engines and Intellectual Property
This panel will review past and present litigation involving
search engines and claims  framed in the legal doctrines of
copyright, trademark, patent, and right of publicity.  Whether
search engines are innocent intermediaries, heroic crusaders for
open access, or  villainous agents of infringement depends on who
you ask--as does the appropriate legal  response. The panel will
discuss the ways in which IP law shapes the landscape of 
permissible and impermissible searches.

Some questions the panelists may ask include:

    What does the Grokster decision mean for makers of search
engines?
    What are the obligations of search engines when responding to
searches on trademarked terms?
    What IP rights do and should search engines have available to
protect their algorithms and databases?
    What are the obligations of search engines vis-a-vis the
copyright claims of the makers of the content they index?
    Do search engines' activities implicate the right of
publicity?
    Should search engines be liable for their activities in
exposing security holes and spreading data that may include trade
secrets?
    What are the possibilities for using search engines to
promote authorized use of IP protected content?


Panel 4: Search Engines and Individual Rights
Some say that search engines are engines of free expression;
others see them as vehicles  for hate speech. Some think that
search enables large-scale intrusion into the privacy of  others;
others think that the search companies themselves are the new
surveillers, spying on  their users; still others see anonymous
search as a moral necessity and a real possibility.  This panel
will look at the role of search engines in reshaping our
experience of basic  rights and at the pressures the desire to
protect those rights place on search.

Some questions the panelists may ask include:

    Should search engines remove content that some find
objectionable?
    What kinds of data do search engines collect on the
individuals who use them? What kinds should they be allowed to
collect?
    Do search engines facilitate stalking and other dangerous
activities? If so, what can be done about it?
    How can search engines facilitate the free flow of valuable
political and expressive speech?
    In an age when search engines create rankings based on mass
opinion and links, what does this technique mean for individual
dissent and personal liberty?
    Do search engines empower individuals by promoting
accessibility to their words and thoughts online, or do they only
help today's strong media players get stronger?
    Is there a right to search anonymously?
    Is access to search technology a basic human right of access
to knowledge?


--

Eddan Katz
Lecturer in Law, Yale Law School
Executive Director, Information Society Project
http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/