RIAA

This podcast features a keynote session entitled, "Up Against the Firewall", presented by Brenda Laurel, Chair and Professor of the Graduate Program in Design at the California College of the Arts, and Rob Tow, Science and Technology Consultant at the California College of the Arts. The session was recorded at the EDUCAUSE 2008 Western Regional Conference.

Welcome to the premiere episode of EDUCAUSE Now!

EDUCAUSE Now is a monthly podcast, focusing on the intelligent use of information technology in higher education. Each episode features a variety of stories, interviews, and views that relate to IT in higher education. EDUCAUSE Now will also inform you about upcoming events, report on past events, and feature the movers and shakers in policy, teaching and learning, security, and a whole host of other important topics for our members. Let us know what you would like to hear at podcast@educause.edu.

This episode of EDUCAUSE Now features:

In this 50 minute podcast we feature a keynote speech by Mark Luker, Vice President of EDUCAUSE. The speech was delivered at the EDUCAUSE 2008 Southwest Regional Conference in Houston, Texas, and is entitled, "Washington Update: We're from the Government, and We're Here to Help You!"

The recording industry’s complaints against alleged music downloaders are just the tip of the iceberg in legal threats against online activity. In the five years of the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, we have seen thousands of legal threats, with claims including trademark infringement, defamation, and copyright infringement. This seminar will discuss some of the range of complaints, both unwarranted and justified, and describe ChillingEffects.org’s resources for those trying to evaluate legal threats. In some cases, the web’s sunlight can help to melt meritless threats.

In this free January 23 EDUCAUSE LIVE! seminar, Legal Threats, Chilling Effects, and Warming the Air, presenter Wendy Seltzer, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Visiting Professor, Northeastern University School of Law, will discuss these threats and how to evaluate them.

A steady stream of press releases from the MPAA and the RIAA about unauthorized peer-to-peer downloading suggests that college students are digital pirates and campus network officials are engaged in benign neglect. Yet ample evidence confirms that unauthorized P2P downloading is primarily a consumer market problem, not especially tied to college students on campus networks. Moreover, the media companies with strong ties to consumer broadband providers are themselves at least indirectly promoting unauthorized P2P activity. This is not new: Media companies have a long history of seeking remedy (and revenue) from Congressional action, rather than pursuing marketplace solutions.

In this hour and ten minute long podcast from the 2007 Seminars on Academic Computing, we hear from Fred H. Cate, Distinguished Professor at the School of Law and Director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, with a speech entitled, Privacy and Security in Higher Education: Filling the Policy Vacuum .

In this hour-long podcast, we present a session from the EDUCAUSE 2007 Policy Conference entitled, "Digital Entertainment on Campus: Old Lawsuits and New Business Models". This session consists of a panel discussion as well as Q&A from attendess. The panel includes:

Michael J. Bebel, CEO, Ruckus Network

Jeffrey Bronikowski, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Global Digital Initiatives Division, Universal Music Group

Larry Jacobson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cdigix

Session moderator: Susan Butler, Senior Correspondent, Billboard Magazine

The 2007 Policy Conference kicked off with a top-ten style list of Policy Issues currently facing higher education. This entertaining and insightful list was compiled and delivered by Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy and Computer Policy and Law Program at Cornell University. What's past is prologue. As we look ahead to the policy questions facing the Internet today and tomorrow, it's useful to recall what we've seen over the past 12 months. This speech, entitled the Year In Review, runs approximately 33 minutes.

The RIAA have proposed a legislative draft for a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, on the topic "Content Protection in the Digital Age: The Broadcast Flag, High-Definition Radio, and the Analog Hole," on November 3rd. To quote the EFF the effect of the legislation would be to:

[...] take one of the most basic and ubiquitous components in multimedia, and encase it within a pile of legally-enforced, complex, and patented proprietary technology - forever.

Coverage from: public knowledge.org and eff.org.

Amazingly, not even RIAA.com appears to have positive coverage of this at the time of writing. If anyone finds any material justify this, I'd really be interested.