Intellectual Property

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today announced the incoming and returning fellows, faculty associates, affiliates, and directors who together will form the core of the Center’s networked community in the 2017-2018 academic year.

The concept of speech is typically defined as the communication of thoughts in spoken words. Yet the authors note that First Amendment protection of speech is far broader, covering nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and even nonsense—individual topics that Tushnet, Chen, and Blocher focus on (in that order) in the book.

Ellora Thadaney Israni ’19 was among 30 recipients selected to receive the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, the premier graduate school fellowship for immigrants and children of immigrants.

When David Webb ’17 was approached with the opportunity to become a part-owner of Hiatus—an app that can scan users’ accounts to uncover auto-renewing charges that they may be unaware of—lessons from classes such as Consumer Contracts and Law, Economics, and Psychology, taught by Harvard Law Professor Oren Bar-Gill, immediately sprang to mind.

Ruth Okediji, a leading scholar in international intellectual property law and global economic regulation, will join the faculty of Harvard Law School as a tenured professor in July.

For the first time, Harvard Law School and the MIT Media Lab have collaborated to host an innovative January-term course, “Internet & Society: The Technologies and Politics of Control,” dedicated to understanding the legal and technical dynamics of the digital world.

During this year’s spring semester, Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, is teaching a novel seminar called “Diversity and Social Justice in First Year Classes.” It combines classroom teaching with an eight-part public lecture series examining how issues of diversity and social justice can be integrated into the core 1L classes.

Co-taught by HLS Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen and Nana Sarian, general counsel of Stella McCartney, “Fashion Law Lab,” a nine-day course offered at Harvard Law School during the January term, gave students the opportunity to role-play simulations of scenarios faced by general counsel working in the fashion industry.

On Jan. 5 President Barack Obama ’91 announced several key administration posts, including Jonathan Zittrain ’95 as appointee for member of the National Museum and Library Services Board (NMLSB).

The Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund will support interdisciplinary research to ensure that AI develops in a way that is ethical, accountable, and advances the public interest.

Rebecca Tushnet, a leading First Amendment scholar, will join the faculty of Harvard Law School as the inaugural Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law.

A number of new fellows, faculty associates, and affiliates will join the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University for the 2016-2017 academic year.

HLS Professors Tomiko Brown-Nagin and Jonathan Zittrain ’95 have been elected members of the American Law Institute--the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.

On April 12, students in Professor of Practice Urs Gasser’s Spring 2016 Comparative Online Privacy Seminar at Harvard Law School hosted a student-led mini-symposium on data privacy in the U.S. and the EU with experts from private companies, law firms, and academia.

Yochai Benkler, who has written extensively on the “networked public sphere,” including his influential book “The Wealth of Networks,” recently spoke about his proposal for a defense of whistleblowers, his testimony in a trial of a well-known leaker of military documents, and a problem he calls a growing crisis in the country.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded $425,000 over two years for the development of SHARIAsource—an online Islamic law resource founded and directed by Harvard Law School Professor Intisar Rabb.

As head of the primary govern­ment agency tasked with protecting the rights of consumers, Edith Ramirez has focused much of her efforts on digital privacy.

When students walk across Harvard Yard with earbuds in, they could be listening to music or talking on the phone. But nowadays, there’s a good chance they’re listening to a podcast. What listeners may not know is that podcasts started right here at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society in 2003.

At a talk hosted by the Berkman Center in August, Jonathan Zittrain and members of the ACLU discussed problems raised by the 2014 European Court of Justice ruling – which gave EU citizens the 'Right to be Forgotten' by Google – and laid out potential alternatives.

The latest episode of the Radio Berkman podcast looks into the payment structure of streaming music services in light of the release of a Rethink Music Initiative report on "Transparency and Money Flows in the Music Industry".