Opening remarks from Michael Frazier, CFO for Providence College, speaking highly of PC IT Director Becky Ramos. Deserved praise.
Also from George Loftus on OSHEAN's past year, and the charitable actions they have taken. Focusing on OSHEAN Currents, the newsletter, and thanking Alison and Nimota for putting the evening together. Now introducing the OSHEAN Board of Directors. Chair of the Board happens to be Becky Ramos who thanks PC Events staff and the Sodexo staff.
George Loftus introducing the speakers now.
Heidi Wachs
Paul Jones
Steve McDonald
Open Panel Discussion: I did my best to indicate individual speakers, but it's not perfect.
DMCA Copyright
SM: If you operate as an ISP, you must register an agent to free yourself from liability when others on your network are violating copyright. That is the incentive to join the protocol. They then pass along requests to take down questionable or illegal material. Legally, there is no requirement to respond to "take down" notices. RIAA claims are false, there is no requirement.
PJ: runs a fans-taping-bands website, but is dragged down by many false claims of ownership. MPAA searching for films of Arnold S when he's running for Gov of CA. Finds Junior on one of PJs servers: Linux Distribution. They spend 1.5 days to download and search the server to find the file.
Pre-1976, you had to publish and register to copyright. Post-1976, simply write your material down and it is copyrighted. "Copyright happens." No central registry, and they last for 70 post-mortem. There's almost no way to know if anything is copyrighted anymore.
GL: Why do MPAA/RIAA focus on college campuses?
HW: On campus, RIAA is really aggressive. MPAA sends notices, but not like the RIAA. Now lobbying in DC to pass "onerous legislation." On campus, for years, they've been sending notices. Past two months they got really aggressive. Claim to have upgraded search tools. But really, the way identify notices is to find "close matches that are in a shared folder." Georgetown went from 20-30 per month to 50 per day.
SM: Colleges targetted because students are top consumers. Very few suits are against students, most are against the institutions.
PJ: Follow the money. Don't sue the doctor, sue the doctor's insurance company. State institutions are inherently free from copyright law as a matter of federal/state jurisdiction.
Growing Up Online
What is the effect of technology on higher learning for these digital natives.
PJ: Noticed the social networks, so we took a look. Facebook was tops: 98% of undergrads were on Facebook, 12% of grads, 5% of professors. At that point it required university ID to join. Wanted to see how fast incoming freshman would join FB. 80% of each orientation group joined FB immediately after orientation.
SM: Many calls from student affairs, "What's the Law." The issue: students are drinking, we have to stop it. Not FB's problem. FB is, in fact, a window on the student population. Microwave analogy: microwave is a good addition, but it doesn't replace the stove. Same as Internet, we're still learning how it works in real life.
GL: Internet formed the greatest generational gap since Rock 'n Roll. Quoting Nova.
HW: I'm on every network because someone sent me an invitation.
PJ: Different people choose different places to perform their identity. On Friendster, there were Fakesters like Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, the corner bar, etc. FF started by Bay Area techies and Burning Man using their Playa names.
GL: Who has an organization has a presence on Facebook?
Social Production
PJ: This is where copyright gets confusing. So much is now remixes. Also with kids. Jr High would send audio files instead of phone calls, so his son created a remix using the voice. And then it got onto the intercom. Then the principal wrote and thanked them. Principal was in her public role and therefore not protected.
SM: Copyright laws in England. Had to have the right to make copies, it was censorship.
HW: There are lawyers trying to help the good guys win. American University. Pamphlet for documentary filmmakers, also one for user generated content. Peter Jasai.
GL: The milk of innovation does not come from cash cows.
Business Models
SM: Radiohead pay-what-you-want album. Made $10 million in one week. May become irrelevant. Can make files unusable, as well as license agreements.
PJ: License agreements are unreadable and therefore have no standing. Only human/machine/lawyer readable license is creative commons. US copyright law written in opposition to British law. Limited period of time to grant monopolistic rights to creators. "Limited period of time" then was 15 years. Now it's life plus 70 years.
HW: Mickey Mouse was about to fall into public domain, so Congress changed the law.
SM: Doesn't matter what incentive you give Walt Disney, he's not creating anything else. Copyright prevents anybody from doing to Disney what Disney did to the Brothers Grimm.
PJ: What we need to do in this flat world is to make our laws the same as everybody else's.
I've got to run, but I'll be back after dinner.