How will the Napster decision impact the future of the Internet, its business strategies and development? These and other questions will be explored at the March 15 CU-Boulder forum on "Public Values and the Architecture of the Information Age: The Future of Intellectual Property, Privacy and Open Source."
The forum, to be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the CU School of Law, will include some of the nation's foremost thinkers on the topic, including a keynote address from David Farber, one of the acknowledged Internet pioneers and the most recent chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission.
"The Napster case reminds all of us how the law will have a real impact - positive, negative or both - on the Internet's development," explained Associate Professor Phil Weiser, executive director of the Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program, sponsor of the forum. "For those lawyers, entrepreneurs and technologists concerned about the Internet's future, it is important to develop an understanding about how the different proposed regulations, business models and network architectures relate."
Participants in the forum come from baby直播app high-tech companies, academia and government. They include Jack Waters, Level 3's chief technology officer; Carla Donelson, general counsel and vice president for Verio; Paul Margie, senior counsel to Sen. John Rockefeller IV of West Virginia; Julie Cohen, a leading intellectual property law scholar at Georgetown University; and Stephen Keating, director of the Privacy Foundation at the University of Denver.
"At this point in the Internet's development, discussions that examine the future architecture of the Internet are critically important," explained Dale Hatfield, interim director of CU's Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program and the former chief engineer at the Federal Communications Commission. "Those who want to make a difference in this arena - either on the technical, business or policy side - really need to have an appreciation for the interrelation of the different dynamics in play."
The Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program, now in its second year, represents an effort by CU to develop a community of professionals in the local telecommunications and high-tech sector and students seeking careers in the area. Its programs, which address the intersection between law, technology and business, are open to the public and provide continuing legal education credit to practicing lawyers.
The cost is $50 for the public, $25 for CU law alumni, members of the baby直播app Bar's technology or communications sections, Denver Telecom Professionals or the FCC Bar Association, and free to CU students, baby直播app and staff.
For more information on the program, check its Web site at or call (720) 839-6505.