[Air-l] Fwd: Yale "Regulating Search?" Symposium - Dec. 3

[Dan L Burk]

Of possible interest.  DLB


On 10 Nov 2005, Eddan Katz wrote:
>
> Regulating Search?
> A Symposium on Search Engines, Law, and Public Policy
> December 3, 2005
> Yale Law School
> New Haven, CT
> http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/regulatingsearch.html
> 
> 
> Search is big business, and search functionality increasingly shapes 
> the information society. Yet how the law treats search is still up 
> for grabs, and with it, the power to dominate the next generation of 
> the online world. How will this potential to wield control affect 
> search engine companies, their advertisers, their users, or the 
> information they index? What will search engines look like in the 
> future, and what is the role of regulators in this emerging market?
> 
> The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is proud to 
> present "Regulating Search?: A Symposium on Search Engines, Law, and 
> Public Policy," the first academic conference devoted to search 
> engines and the law.  "Regulating Search?" will take place on 
> December 3, 2005 at Yale Law School in New Haven, CT.
> 
> This event will bring together representatives from the search 
> industry, government, civil society, and academia to discuss the 
> emerging intersection of search engines and various forms of 
> regulation.  It is made possible by the generous support of the 
> Microsoft Corporation, Google, Inc., and the Knight Foundation.
> 
> A distinguished group of experts will map out the terrain of search 
> engine law & policy in four panels: (1) The Search Space; (2) Search 
> Engines and Public Regulation; (3) Search Engines and Intellectual 
> Property; and (4) Search Engines and Individual Rights.  A detailed 
> description of these four panels is included below and the current 
> list of confirmed speakers will be available on the conference 
> website.
> 
> Registration for the conference and further information are available 
> at http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/regulatingsearch.html. Early Bird 
> registration is $35 for students, $75 for academic and nonprofit 
> participants, and $165 for corporate and law firm participants. Early 
> Bird registration ends on Nov. 15.
> 
> 
> Regulating Search?
> A Symposium on Search Engines, Law, and Public Policy
> 
> Panel 1: The Search Space
> This panel will review the wide range of what search engines do and 
> their importance in the information ecosystem. It will survey the 
> pressures search engines face, the technologies they employ, and the 
> constituencies they must serve. It will frame the question, to be 
> explored throughout the day, of whether search is a matter that 
> requires specific regulatory intervention and a special set of legal 
> rules for its governing. In this panel, industry participants, 
> computer scientists, and analysts will flag major trends in search 
> engine technology and try to predict future developments, with the 
> goal of pointing out those trends that will create new conflicts and 
> new litigation.
> 
> Some questions the panelists may ask include:
> How competitive will the search engine market be in five years?
> Who will be creating the next generation of search innovations: large 
> corporate entities or judgment-proof individuals?
> Will the rise of geography-based search change our assumptions about 
> such questions as privacy, jurisdiction, and censorship?
> What's next in personalized search?
> What's next in decentralized peer-to-peer search?
> Will vertical search upend our intuitions about what a search engine
does?
> Do search companies think of legal risks when they make development
> decisions?
> What kinds of services will search merge with?
> 
> 
> Panel 2: Search Engines and Public Regulation
> This panel will discuss the possibility of direct government 
> regulation of search functionality. Such regulation might proceed 
> under several jurisdictional heads (e.g. antitrust, consumer 
> protection, or telecommunications) with any of a number of possible 
> policy goals. Where one or a few search engines achieve dominance 
> over a particular aspect of search, the possibility of such 
> regulation seems more imminent. This panel will discuss who might 
> regulate search, why, and how.
> 
> Some questions the panelists may ask include:
> Do search engines have First Amendment or Takings Clause rights that 
> would preclude certain forms of regulation?
> Should government regulators intervene to make sure that the search 
> market stays competitive?
> Should search engines be subjected to an informational equivalent of 
> common-carrier rules?
> Is there an obligation to provide evenhanded listing of sites? 
> Evenhanded listing of results?
> Should search engines be required to disclose their commercial 
> sponsors? Their algorithms?
> Should consumers be protected from bad search results? From having 
> their search results malevolently altered?
> Does the recent spate of security breaches at database companies 
> portend similar trouble for search companies?
> Should search engines be afraid of anti-spyware legislation? Of 
> anti-spam legislation?
> 
> 
> Panel 3: Search Engines and Intellectual Property
> This panel will review past and present litigation involving search 
> engines and claims framed in the legal doctrines of copyright, 
> trademark, patent, and right of publicity. Whether search engines are 
> innocent intermediaries, heroic crusaders for open access, or 
> villainous agents of infringement depends on who you ask--as does the 
> appropriate legal response. The panel will discuss the ways in which 
> IP law shapes the landscape of permissible and impermissible searches.
> 
> Some questions the panelists may ask include:
> What does the Grokster decision mean for makers of search engines?
> What are the obligations of search engines when responding to 
> searches on trademarked terms?
> What IP rights do and should search engines have available to protect 
> their algorithms and databases?
> What are the obligations of search engines vis-a-vis the copyright 
> claims of the makers of the content they index?
> Do search engines' activities implicate the right of publicity?
> Should search engines be liable for their activities in exposing 
> security holes and spreading data that may include trade secrets?
> What are the possibilities for using search engines to promote 
> authorized use of IP protected content?
> 
> Panel 4: Search Engines and Individual Rights
> Some say that search engines are engines of free expression; others 
> see them as vehicles for hate speech. Some think that search enables 
> large-scale intrusion into the privacy of others; others think that 
> the search companies themselves are the new surveillers, spying on 
> their users; still others see anonymous search as a moral necessity 
> and a real possibility. This panel will look at the role of search 
> engines in reshaping our experience of basic rights and at the 
> pressures the desire to protect those rights place on search.
> 
> Some questions the panelists may ask include:
> Should search engines remove content that some find objectionable?
> What kinds of data do search engines collect on the individuals who 
> use them? What kinds should they be allowed to collect?
> Do search engines facilitate stalking and other dangerous activities? 
> If so, what can be done about it?
> How can search engines facilitate the free flow of valuable political 
> and expressive speech?
> In an age when search engines create rankings based on mass opinion 
> and links, what does this technique mean for individual dissent and 
> personal liberty?
> Do search engines empower individuals by promoting accessibility to 
> their words and thoughts online, or do they only help today's strong 
> media players get stronger?
> Is there a right to search anonymously?
> Is access to search technology a basic human right of access to
knowledge?
> 
> --
> 
> Eddan Katz
> Lecturer in Law, Yale Law School
> Executive Director, Information Society Project
> http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/
> _______________________________________________
> 

Dan L. Burk
Oppenheimer, Wolff & Donnelly Professor
University of Minnesota Law School
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
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