Cyberlaw

An online investigative journalist, working on a shoestring budget, is sued for libel. Where can he turn for legal help?

When, in February, Internet law expert Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 spoke at a gathering of the Harvard Law School American Constitution Society, he asked his audience to consider this trio of circumstances.

Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95, a leading scholar on the legal and policy issues surrounding the Internet, adds to his law school post a joint appointment to the faculty of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) as Professor of Computer Science. Zittrain is a co-founder of the university’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

“The cybersecurity changes we need,” an op-ed, co-written by Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith and Melissa Hathaway of the Harvard Kennedy School,  appeared in the May 29, 2010, edition of the Washington Post.

In an address to the Harvard Law School community, HLS Dean Martha Minow offered a survey of "The Past, Present, and Future of Legal Education: HLS and Beyond.” After discussing the historical evolution of legal education up to the present "time of innovation and renewal,” she offered a preview of future trends and developments.

HLS Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 wrote “Ending the Internet’s trench warfare,” an op-ed that appeared in The New York Times on March 21, 2010. Last summer, Benkler, the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center, conducted a major independent review of existing literature and studies about broadband deployment and usage throughout the world, following a request by the Federal Communications Commission.

The Citizen Media Law Project, joined by the Public Participation Project, the Online News Association, and the Chicago Current, submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Illinois Supreme Court this week, urging the Court to reject two lower courts’ narrow interpretations of the state’s Anti-SLAPP statute.

HLS Professor Lawrence Lessig wrote about Google, copyright and our future in an op-ed “For the Love of Culture” that appeared in the Jan. 26, 2010, edition of The New Republic. He is faculty director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. His latest book, “Remix,” was published in paperback in 2008.

“A fight over freedom at Apple’s core,” an op-ed written by Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95, appeared in the February 3, 2010 edition of The Financial Times.

“Can we stop the global cyber arms race?,” an op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith, appeared in the February 1, 2010, edition of the Washington Post.

On Jan. 15, The New York Times included commentary by HLS Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 on “What web sites can do” in the wake of Google’s recent announcement that it would no longer censor search results in China.

Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig received an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam on January 8 for his well-known efforts to foster informational and cultural liberty on the Internet.

Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain's op-ed, “Work the new digital sweatshops,” appeared in the December 8, 2009, edition of Newsweek Magazine.

Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey ’01 will testify before the House subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security today regarding two pieces of legislation designed to address cyberbullying and other online safety issues for children. A live webcast of the testimony will be available beginning at 3 p.m.

At an FCC broadband workshop entitled “International Lessons” held on August 18, Harvard Law School Professor and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society Yochai Benkler ’94 advised the FCC to look to other countries in formulating a national broadband strategy. (Watch a webcast of the workshop.)

What will “libraries” in 2075 look like? Can copyright law be re-engineered? Should we trust Google to make decisions in the public interest? Those were some of the questions discussed at a workshop entitled “Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement,” which took place at Harvard Law School on July 31.

The following article, "Authors of 'The Cluetrain Manifesto' assess cyberspace 10 years later," by Colleen Walsh, appeared in the June 18, 2009, issue of the Harvard Gazette.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University will conduct an independent expert review of existing literature and studies about broadband deployment and usage throughout the world. This project will help inform the FCC’s efforts in developing the National Broadband Plan.

For students looking for cutting-edge legal work in the realm of new technologies, there may be no better place than the Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. In the fall of 2008, more than 40 students were involved in a wide range of projects that explored areas such as free speech, intellectual property and online child safety in the context of the Internet and other rapidly developing technologies. Many of the projects the center undertook involves issues being litigated for the first time.

The following article, written by Professor John Palfrey ’01, entitled, “Internet arms race,” appeared in the May/June 2009 issue of the MIT Technology review.

At the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center’s 20th Anniversary Technical Symposium, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 discussed why the Internet’s once-celebrated openness has led to the now regularly occurring security threats, and sketched solutions to deal with these threats.