Should the non-commercial sharing of digital music and video files be restricted by law?  If so, how?

What are the purposes of copyright?

Should the capabilities of the Internet drive change in copyright law?

What are the appropriate boundaries of "fair use?"

Is the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) being used inappropriately?

Industry Perspectives

MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). MPAA legislative positions.

BMI - "an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music. The non-profit-making company, founded in 1940, collects license fees on behalf of those American creators it represents, as well as thousands of creators from around the world who chose BMI for representation in the United States." BMI's Office of Government Relations.

ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Public Affairs - "ASCAP is a membership association of over 145,000 U.S. composers, songwriters and publishers of every kind of music and hundreds of thousands worldwide...ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works." ASCAP's Public Affairs & Legislative division.

Other Perspectives

Future of Music Coalition - " a not-for-profit collaboration between members of the music, technology, public policy and intellectual property law communities. The FMC seeks to educate the media, policymakers, and the public about music / technology issues, while also bringing together diverse voices in an effort to come up with creative solutions to some of the challenges in this space. The FMC also aims to identify and promote innovative business models that will help musicians and citizens to benefit from new technologies."

Boycott-RIAA - "It is our intention to make the public, and our leaders aware of the implications and long term consquences to our culture of bowing to every demand the recording industry presents to our congress."

Electronic Frontier Foundation - IP/Copyright Archive.

The Creative Commons - an alternative approach formed by several prominent law school professors, among others. "Offering your work under a Creative Commons license does not mean giving up your copyright. It means offering some of your rights to any taker, and only on certain conditions."

"Copyright and Internet: Social Claims and Government's Intervention" a paper on copyright by doctoral student Yong-Chan Kim.

More resources on Cyberlaw.

Should schools and libraries be required by law to “filter” content when providing internet access to children? On June 23, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, upheld the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The CIPA had been actively opposed and legally challenged by the American Library Association (ALA). CIPA is still a contested issue as libraries decide if and how to implement the requirements of the act.

Proponents of Internet Filtering

National Coalition for the Protection of Families & Children (NCPCF) - "dedicated to helping people live better lives free from the influences of pornography and the sexualized messages of the culture." Sponsors FilterReview.com with reviews of filtering/blockings ISPs and software packages.

Family Research Council (FRC) - "champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society." FRC President Ken Connor's reaction to the court decision declaring the Children's Internet Protect Act (CIPA) unconstitutional. FRC's legal brief in support of the CIPA.

American Family Association (AFA) - "represents and stands for traditional family values, focusing primarily on the influence of television and other media –including pornography –on our society." A special project of the AFA focuses on Library Internet Filtering.

An article in support of school and library filtering from Focus on the Family's Teachers in Focus magazine.

National Law Center for Children and Families (NLC) - "focused on the protection of children and families from the harmful effect of illegal pornography by assisting law enforcement and law mprovement." NLC briefs related to Internet Filtering and Internet pornography. NLC proposals and comments on Internet Filtering.

Opponents of Internet Filtering

Resource page on the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) from the American Library Assocation. The ALA led opposition to CIPA.

Internet Free Expression Alliance (IFEA) - "The Internet is a powerful and positive forum for free expression...content "filtering" techniques already have been implemented in ways inconsistent with free speech principles, impeding the ability of Internet users to publish and receive constitutionally protected expression." Includes news and resources on the filtering issue.

The Censorware Project - "formed by a group of writers and internet activists in late 1997. Our goal is to bring to light information about censorware products which is, by its nature, hidden." This extensive site includes news, reports on filtering packages, legal analyses, essays, and links related to filtering, blocking, and other forms of "censorware."

Seth Finkelstein's Free Speech Pages - Censorware Essays. Perspectives from a founder and former participant in the Censorware Project. Submission in 2001 to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

A student details his objections to the blocking software used at Clark County School District CCSD) in Las Vegas, NV.

Content Labeling and Additional Perspectives

Internet Content Rating Association - "an international, independent organization that empowers the public, especially parents, to make informed decisions about electronic media by means of the open and objective labelling of content."

Internet Content Filtering & Rating - "A New Architecture for the Protection of Children and Free Speech" - a proposal from the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.

Congress: Don't censor the internet, but help users avoid unwanted material - opinion paper by Professor Lee A. Hollaar proposing a law against purposely misrating sites.

Policy Post from the Center for Democracy and Technology discussing benefits and weaknesses of filtering technologies.

More resources on Privacy/Free Speech.

What Internet technologies and practices compromise the privacy of individuals?

The EPIC Cookie Page. Information on cookies and positions taken by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"How Web Servers' Cookies Threaten Your Privacy" from Junkbusters Corporation.

Cookie Central - a website with news and information on Internet cookies.

Article by Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger in the West Virginia Journal of Law and Technology: "The Internet and Privacy Legislation: Cookies for a Treat?"

"Bake your own Internet Cookie! Try one. Then choose a different one to see how cookies can be used to provide personalized content" from Privacy.net. Commercial site with consumer information.

"How Internet Cookies Work" from the howstuffworks site.

Privacy and Consumer Profiling page from the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

More resources on Privacy/Free Speech.

What groups are affected by the digital divides?  What can be done to reduce these gaps?

Some racial and ethnic groups are less likely to own a computer, access the Internet, and use a computer for recreational, educational, or business purposes.  What are the causes of these differences and how can these gaps be reduced?

An analysis of digital divides around the globe by Caslon Analytics. "In fact there are different divides that cannot be effectively addressed through a simplistic 'one size fits all' model. In essence, those divides involve differential access to computers, the net, telecommunications and information. That differential access involves variables such as income/poverty, education, race, gender, age, ethnicity, disability and geography. It includes unequal access to knowledge, training, resources, job opportunities and the practices of the information economy." An issue of Analysphere from Caslon Analytics on Internet usage in Africa.

Bridges.org - "combines policy initiatives with ground-level pilot projects and background research to help tackle the range of issues the characterize the digital divide. We support national and international policy bodies with unbiased information on ICT policy through briefings and workshops. We are developing innovative training materials to teach the next generation of Internet citizens, and building communities of local ICT users. And we are gathering extensive resources on the digital divide and case studies of ICTs being applied in real life."

Digital Differentiation in the UK. A report from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London

Information about the digital divides in the US and UK from Making the Net Work.

"Crossing the Digital Divides" - a summary of the digital divide problem by Victor Chase in the Siemens Webzine.

"The Next Digital Divides" by Howard Besser - "Thus far the "Digital Divide" has been primarily expressed as a gap between those who have access to technology and those who do not. This author contends that we must begin focusing public attention on a whole range of other digital disparity gaps, including: effective use of information, the ability for an information user to be more than a passive consumer, and the availability of relevant, useful, appropriate, and affordable content. "

More resources on the Digital Divide.

How educationally helpful are computers in the classroom? Do computers really improve the elementary school experience?

From abcnews.com and The Christian Science Monitor: "To Compute or Not? Educators Debate Computer Use in Elementary Classrooms"

The Alliance for Childhood "challenges the Web-Based Education Commission to consider the real needs of children as they examine the question of Web-Based Education. Pointing to a lack of any government research on the potential hazards of computer use by children, as well as the inability of current research to demonstrate significant educational benefits, the Alliance for Childhood calls upon the Commission for recommendations based upon more than immediate economic interests and fashionable trends. " Also from the Alliance for Childhood: "Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood" and a Call to Action asking for a review of harms as well as benefits of computer use.

Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at the University of Michigan.

Maine Learning Technology Initiative - which provides laptops to all 7th and 8th grade students and their teachers. More about the Initiative from the Friends of the Initiative.

From the American Federation of Teachers: "Oversold and Underused - Why faculty don't use computers in the classroom." A teacher explains why he believes computer use can hurt younger students. From the American Teacher: "Bridging the digital divide: Public schools work to close the gap."

From Education Week on the Web: a large respository of stories on Technology in Education, some of which require a subscription.

US Department of Education: Office of Educational Technology. A wide array of reports, speeches, and initiatives.

The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) with a purpose to "provide leadership in educational communications and technology by linking professionals holding a common interest in the use of educational technology and its application to the learning process."

More resources on the Digital Divide.

Would providing universal access to the Internet eliminate the digital divides?

From First Monday (a peer-reviewed journal on the Internet): Eszter Hargittai looks at a Second Level Digital Divide. "Much of the existing literature on the digital divide - the differences between the "haves" and "have nots" regarding access to the Internet - limits its scope to a binary classification of technology use by only considering whether someone does or does not use the Internet. To remedy this shortcoming, in this paper I look at the differences in people's online skills.

More resources on the Digital Divide.

What about people who don't want to use the Internet? Do we need to protect them from government laws and policies that require or reward Internet usage (such as online filing of taxes)?

From the Washington Post: "Many Americans Still Aren't Going Online, Survey Finds."

A report on Internet non-usage from the Pew Internet & American Life project.

More resources on the Digital Divide.

More resources on measuring Internet usage.

How can indigenous cultures be preserved in an environment of global communication?

Cultural Recognition and the Internet" - a paper by Erik Chia-Yi LEE. "Ever since the advent of Internet, the issue of cultural recognition is already part of the cultural struggle for visibility on the global network...issues like the global-local confrontations, the cultural contrast between the West and the non-West, as well as the Internet's influence on the cultural productions embodied in a language other than English."

More resources on Globalization.

Should Internet retailers be required to collect sales taxes, even when they do not have a nexus (physical presence) in the state of purchaser?

"End of the Beginning: Internet Sales Tax" - article on the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) from internetnews.com.

Tax "Cybrary" - a virtual tax library from Vertex Inc. a company specializing in tax compliance software and research support.

EcommerceTax.com - "current news and feature articles on taxation of e-commerce."

"State and Local Sales Tax Revenue Losses from E-Commerce: Updated Estimates" and other materials on ecommerce and sales taxes from the College of Business Administration
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Ecommerce Tax Links from the elibrary at Carnegie Mellon Institute for Ecommerce.

More resources on eCommerce.