[d@DCC] Information Rights Salon -Samuel Trosow- February 25, 2003

From: Jason Young <jyoung _-at-_ lexinformatica.org>
To: Digital Copyright in Canada <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 06:31:12 -0500
References: <3E54FB22.91571A0F@uwo.ca>

fyi for Toronto-area listmembers

INFORMATION RIGHTS SALON <http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/research/inforights>


"Digital Millenium Copyright Act: Does Canada really need it? 
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

Samuel Trosow Professor, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Information 
and Media Studies University of Western Ontario

140 St. George, Room 728 Faculty of Information Studies (building 
adjacent to Robarts Library) University of Toronto


ABSTRACT The 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty requires that member states 
adopt measures designed to inhibit the circumvention of technological 
protections for copyrighted works as well as to protect the integrity 
of rights management information. In the United States, the treaty 
was implemented in 1998 by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) 
which contained strong versions of these measures. The DMCA has been 
severely criticized on several grounds, including shifting the 
historical balance between owners and users of copyrighted works too 
far in the direction of increased proprietary control, being 
destructive of the privacy of users, and creating a chilling effect 
which could inhibit productive computer science research.

Over the past two years, the Government of Canada has been conducting 
a consultation process in order to inform Parliament's implementation 
of the WIPO treaty. The report has been tabled in Parliament, and 
legislation can beexpected in the not too distant future. At the same 
time, the latest Draft FTAA Agreement contains a chapter on Copyright 
Law that includes, as possible options, strong versions of the 
anti-circumvention and rights management rules that are similar in 
scope to the DMCA.

This talk will review the history of the anti-circumvention and 
rights management provisions of the DMCA and raise several questions 
for Canadian policymakers:
-How should Canada implement the WIPO Treaty?
-Does Canada need to adopt DMCA-like rules with respect to 
anti-circumvention and rights management?
-What are the interrelationships and tensions between the protection 
of copyright and privacy interests in the digital environment? -What 
is the effect of including these provisions in the FTAA?


BIO

Professor Trosow joined the Faculty at the University of Western 
Ontario in the  Fall 2001 and holds a joint appointment in the 
Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. He 
previously taught part-time at the Golden Gate University School of 
Law, in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose 
State University, and in the School of Information Resources and 
Library Science at the University of Arizona. He is a member of the 
California and United States Supreme Court Bars,  was previously 
engaged as a sole-practitioner in Los Angeles and Berkeley, 
California, and has served as a Staff Attorney/Clinical Instructor in 
the housing unit at the Berkeley Community Law Centre.

 From 1995 until 2001, Professor Trosow was a librarian at the Boalt 
Hall School of Law (University of California, Berkeley). His doctoral 
work in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA focused on 
information policy issues and his dissertation was entitled 
"Information for Society: Towards a Critical Theory of Intellectual 
Property Policy." Prof. Trosow currently teaches Introduction to 
Intellectual Property, International Intellectual Property, and an 
Advanced Copyright Seminar in the Faculty of Law. At FIMS, his 
teaching assignments include Legal Issues for Information 
Professionals, Legal Resources and Services, and a doctoral seminar 
in the Political Economy of Information.

BA (Pennsylvania State University) 1974, JD (Southwestern University) 
1978, MPA (California State University, Hayward) 1988, LLM (Golden 
Gate University) 1993, MLS (San Jose State University) 1994, PhD 
(UCLA) 2002.


UPCOMING TALKS (details to follow)

Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star will join us to speak about the 
importance of access to information in a democracy (date TBA, 
mid-March)

Richard Owens, director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy, 
University of Toronto will join us to discuss the results of a panel 
of experts on health information policy (April 1, 2003)

The lectures are free of charge, and there is NO need for registration.

If you would like to receive the announcements from the Information 
Rights Salon please register at 
<http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/research/inforights>

For more info contact: Krista Boa <boa@fis.utoronto.ca>
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