[CoLoCo] FYI: April 9th: The War on "Piracy": A Fight for Industry Survival or a Failed Approach?

Fri Mar 21 23:23:44 GMT 2008

Looks like an interesting panel - the stars from EFF meet the
industry experts!!

Neal McBurnett                 http://mcburnett.org/neal/

----- Forwarded message from Phil Weiser <sf at colorado.edu> -----

               The War on "Piracy":
A Fight for Industry Survival or a Failed Approach?

                April 9th at 5:30pm
  ATLAS Building, University of Colorado-Boulder

                Reception to Follow

   Registration: Event seating is limited; pre-registration is
   encouraged. Rates: Free   To register:
    http://www.silicon-flatirons.org/registration.php?id=201

Please join us for a panel discussion between attorneys from   
Holme Roberts & Owen and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  
HRO is a Denver-based law firm that represents record         
companies in their attempts to stem online music copyright    
infringement, including actions targeting individual          
university students. The EFF is a nonprofit organization that 
frequently questions the RIAA's tactics and opposes it in     
court.                                                        

A reception will follow.                                      

About this discussion:                                        

In the nine years following the development of Napster, the   
music industry has changed dramatically.  To match the new    
methods of downloading music illegally, there are new means of
detecting such activity and new legal ramifications. The      
ethics of downloading music illegally and who should be       
responsible for such activity continue to be debated.  This   
debate relates to the broader question of whether the music   
industry's business model-i.e., charging for the distribution 
of music-faces an existential threat not merely from piracy,  
but the proliferation of artists willing to share their music 
for free.                                                     

Whether or not individuals can justify downloading copyrighted
music from peer-to-peer networks or other outlets, the fact
remains that this conduct is illegal.  To underscore that     
message, the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) has brought
thousands of lawsuits against individuals who have violated   
the copyright law, seeking to invoke the substantial damage   
remedies available under that statute.  At the same time,     
organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
have suggested that the advent of file sharing cannot be      
stopped by litigation and that the focus should be on finding 
alternative ways for artists to make money.                   

To address the issues at the heart of the debate over digital 
piracy and its impact on the recording industry, Silicon
Flatirons will host a panel discussion, featuring attorneys   
from the EFF as well as from the RIAA's outside counsel (the  
Denver-based law firm, Holme Roberts & Owen).  Over the course
of the discussion, the participants, along with moderator Paul
Ohm, will discuss the ethics behind downloading music
illegally, the soundness of copyright law in general and its  
application to digital content in particular, the
appropriateness of the lawsuits brought by the RIAA, and the  
fate of the music industry.                                   

Featured participants include:                               

Fred von Lohmann                                              

Fred von Lohmann is a senior staff attorney with the          
Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in intellectual  
property matters. In that role, he has represented            
programmers, technology innovators, and individuals in a      
variety of copyright and trademark litigation, including MGM  
v. Grokster, decided by the Supreme Court in 2005. He is also 
involved in EFF's efforts to educate policy-makers regarding  
the proper balance between intellectual property protection   
and the public interest in fair use, free expression, and     
innovation. Before joining EFF, Fred was a visiting researcher
with the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and an        
associate with the international law firm of Morrison &       
Foerster LLP. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, ABC's Good Morning
America, and Fox News O'Reilly Factor and has been widely     
quoted in a variety of national publications. Fred has an A.B.
from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. 

Cindy Cohn                                                    

Cindy Cohn is the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier  
Foundation as well as its General Counsel. She is responsible 
for overseeing the EFF's overall legal strategy and           
supervising EFF's 9 staff attorneys. Ms. Cohn first became    
involved with the EFF in 1995, when the EFF asked her to serve
as the lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the    
successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export       
restrictions on cryptography. Outside the Courts, Ms. Cohn has
testified before Congress, been featured in the New York      
Times, San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere for her work on  
cyberspace issue. The National Law Journal named Ms. Cohn one 
of 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2006 for        
"rushing to the barricades wherever freedom and civil         
liberties are at stake online." In 2007, the Journal named her
one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America.      

Richard Gabriel                                               

Richard L. Gabriel, a partner in the Denver office, came to   
the firm in 1990 and chairs the firm's Intellectual Property  
Practice Group. He concentrates his practice on general       
commercial litigation, intellectual property litigation,      
probate litigation, and products liability litigation,        
including appeals, and has significant experience representing
companies in a wide variety of industries including health    
care. He also serves as Knowledge Management Partner for the  
firm.                                                         

Mr. Gabriel currently serves as lead national counsel for the 
Recording Industry Association of America in connection with
the recording industry's lawsuits against those who illegally 
copy and distribute the record companies' sound recordings    
through unauthorized file-sharing programs. In October 2007,  
Mr. Gabriel tried the first of these cases to go to trial and 
obtained a judgment of willful infringement in the amount of
$222,000 for the plaintiffs. Mr. Gabriel also has defended and
prosecuted trademark and copyright claims for such clients as
Sony Music Entertainment Inc., Zomba Music, Michael Jackson,  
the Colorado Rockies, Build-a-Bear, and Coors, and he has
litigated a number of patent cases, including cases involving
patents for the Lasik laser eye surgery, artificial heart
valves, and several different medical lasers. In addition, Mr.
Gabriel has substantial experience in the defense of
securities fraud, products liability, and toxic tort cases,
and in the prosecution and defense of commercial contracts,
business tort, probate, and personal injury actions. Mr.
Gabriel has also served as city prosecutor for the City of
Lafayette, Colorado.

Mr. Gabriel's pro bono and community work includes ongoing
representation of the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center,
where he undertakes representation of children in dependency
and neglect cases. Mr. Gabriel was named one of the Center's
1997 Champions for Children for his hundreds of hours of pro
bono service to the center. In addition, Mr. Gabriel has
represented the Fort Lewis College Political Science Club
alleging violations of the First Amendment, and he has
represented an Oklahoma death row inmate through the ABA
Capital Representation project. Mr. Gabriel has also had a
long relationship with Volunteers of America, coordinating a
firm-wide food drive that has delivered over 20,000
Thanksgiving dinners to needy families since 1987. Other
community activities include his service as president of the
board of the Colorado Wind Ensemble, with whom he performs on
the trumpet, and his service on the boards of the Colorado
Judicial Institute and the Rocky Mountain Children's Law
Center. In June 1998, Mr. Gabriel was selected to perform the
Star-Spangled Banner prior to a Colorado Rockies baseball game
as part of pre-game festivities honoring Holme Roberts & Owen
on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.

In 2002, Mr. Gabriel received the Richard Marden Davis Award,
given by the Denver Bar Foundation and the law firm of Davis
Graham & Stubbs to a lawyer under the age of 40 who combines
excellence in the practice of law with creative community
leadership. Mr. Gabriel has been recognized as a Colorado
Super Lawyer and has also been listed in the Chambers USA
Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business. In addition,
Mr. Gabriel was named the 2007 Intellectual Property Lawyer of
the Year by Law Week Colorado and a 2007 Lawyer of the Year by
Lawyers USA.

----

CLE: CLE credit will be available

Location: University of Colorado-Boulder, ATLAS Building, Cofrin
Auditorium

For more information:

visit our website:                            
http://www.silicon-flatirons.org                        

Questions:                                
Email: sf at colorado.edu                          
Call Anna: 303.735.5633                         

Silicon Flatirons | 401 UCB | Boulder | CO | 80309

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