SU Paper Makes Top 10 for Cyber Law on SSRN
By Brian Rowe | August 18, 2008
A paper co-authored by Elizabeth Townsend-Gard of Tulane and Rachel Goda a Seattle University School of Law grad, “The Fizzy Experiment: Second Life, Virtual Property and a 1L Property Course,” has been listed on SSRN’s Top Ten download list for Cyberspace Law. The paper was published at Santa Clara High Tech Journal in the Spring 2008. The rankings and the paper are available at the Top Ten Cyberlaw List.
Here is the abstract:
This work is an attempt to sort out the relationship between virtual property and common law property. How are we to understand the relationship between a virtual table and an actual table? What does property in this context mean exactly? While many have written about this topic from a myriad of perspectives, we took a slightly different approach. We wanted to see what property elements were being used inside one virtual space - Second Life. We sought to understand the relationship between common law property and virtual property by combining our knowledge as a property professor with a cultural history background with an avid gamer turned law student. We called it the Fizzy Experiment.
I recommend downloading the paper and reading it. Townsend-Gard is a great professor with a a vision of where cyberlaw is going. She was my first copyright professor, I audited her copyright class my 1L year, it was one of the most progressive classes I have had at law school.
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Seattle Law Bloggers Meet Up at AVVO
By Brian Rowe | June 25, 2008
All local legal bloggers are invited to a meetup at Avvo’s offices. Please RSVP if you are able to make it. I can’t make it as I am still in San Francisco at Creative Commons, but it looks like a great event.
Where: Avvo’s offices on the 3rd Floor at 217 Pine Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenue) in Downtown Seattle
When: Thursday, June 26 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
What: Legal Blogger Meetup - proposed agenda to include
- What have you done to attract more readers?
- What widgets or other features have made your blog more functional?
- What resources do you consult when trying to improve your blog?
- What are your strategies in developing new content?
- What is your favorite blog (ok, other than your own), and why?
Will there be treats?
- Why, yes - beer, wine & sushi maki!
Topics: Seattle | No Comments »
Opening Night at NTTT
By Brian Rowe | June 17, 2008
The opening to the conference was Om Shanti a piece by Janice Giteck who played Keyboard. She was accompanied by Thomasa Eckert Saprano, Sid Law Tenor, Laura Deluca on Clarinet, Holly Michelle Eckert on Violin, and Richard Eckert on Cello.
Central to the theme of NTTT is the contemplative aspects of the body and the mind. Over the course of this conference we will engage in a conversation focusing on how to establish a better balance in these over busy times.
The opening panel Moderated by Geoffrey Bowker (Santa Clara University), participant were;
Janice Giteck (Cornish College of the Arts): Tech heads v. traditional song writing musicians. The clash of ideas
Don Horowitz (Former Superior Court Judge): Making decisions immersed in music or the shower, caves of contemplation and the need to listen to others.
Eric Nalder (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) : Meditation and interrogation… Take a moment of silence before action
J. Lee Nelson (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center): We keep losing space to think.
Stephen Sundborg, S.J. (Seattle Univeristy) : I think through writing. The yearly 8 days of jesuit silence also focus me on contemplation. Green lake is like taking your mind for a walk
Vinton Cerf: opening clips: I do not feel responsible for where the internet has gone since inception, we were wise to not over regulate the net, the internet makes it possible to postpone action till the last minute, the acceleration of life limits our contemplativeness, stratagems are need to focus on what is important instead of waiting for the next email or the onslaught of information.
The opening session was videotaped I will see where it is posted.
Quote of the panel “I mean really listening not just waiting of your turn to speak”
PS is it wrong to blog a conference called No Time to Think… ?
Topics: NTTT, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Creative Commons Week One:
By Brian Rowe | June 16, 2008
The first week of the internships has been a bit of a rollercoaster. I arrived in San Francisco Sunday the 8th, 14 hours before my fist day of work. I had just attended the Washington State Bar Access to Justice Conference in Vancouver Washington, a great experience in itself. When I got to San Francisco I met up with Tim Hwang, of ROFLCON, another intern at CC and a recent graduate of Harvard. Tim and I are splitting a 3br in the middle of SF with two of his former classmates. Moving in went well. We have a hefty flight of stairs to the house, but the view makes up for it.
My first day at CC I was able to start directly on legal projects, my supervisor Diane Peters, the General Council, had sent me a few project to start on the week before. The first research project I started on was “Can I license different versions of a work under different licenses? For example low resolution images under CC-BY and High Resolution version under CC- BY-NC or 128k version of a song under CC-BY-NC and a Free Lossless Audio Codec under All Right Reserved?” The answers will be published in an FAQ and other educational material to help people navigate their options with copyright licenses; it will be published in the next week or so. It feels great to do research and see it impact a community of authors through free practical recommendations right away. Technology and copyright are strange bed fellows. Copyright applies to new technology or the works created with them but not in a coherent way. The law is crafted to deal with today, and as new developments arise in tech we get the opportunity to explore uncharted realms, this is what makes digital copyright such a challenge and a love for me.
San Francisco has been a great place to start the summer; both the technology and nonprofit communities are very strong here. I look forward to getting out in the community more as the weeks pass. I am back in Seattle currently for a 4 day visit. I spent the weekend with my partner and daughter; it is great to see them, and then Monday and Tuesday at the No Time to Think Conference at University of Washington’s Ischool and Law School. Wednesday I am headed back to San Francisco for a Copyright 2.0 Technology Summit at Google and a CC reception at Stanford Law. Exciting week to come!
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PILF Grant to work at CC this Summer!
By Brian Rowe | April 17, 2008
Dear Brian:
Congratulations!
You have been chosen to receive a PILF summer grant for 2007. We know that this is unusual in that you were expecting to be interviewed before any decisions were made. However, the committee has selected a few applicants to receive grants based solely on the exceptional nature of their written applications.
The Committee is obviously impressed with your proposal and your commitment to public interest and wishes you good luck with your project. We have selected this procedure in order to make the very difficult decisions we have to make regarding who will be able to take advantage of the significant, but limited, funding available. We believe that this is the fairest way of proceeding in light of the large number of strong applications we received. One of the downsides of proceeding in this fashion, from our point of view, is that we do not get the chance to meet you as we would if we had interviewed you. Should you have any questions regarding your summer project or a career in public interest law, please feel free to contact any of us as we would be delighted to speak with you.
Once again, congratulations and good luck.
Topics: Creative Commons, PILF, Public Interest, SU Law | No Comments »
UW Informatics on YouTube
By Brian Rowe | March 29, 2008
One of the most common questions I receive, is what is Informatics? Informatics for me was the intersections of CSE (computer science and engineering) and HCI (Human computer Interaction) with a little bit of philosophy and ethics thrown in to broaden one’s prospectives.
The most recent Informatics cohort put has put a YouTube to try and explain the major to prospective students:
Brian Reyes, one of the grads talking in the video, did a great Drupal site for WSBA last year it is the ATJWeb.org site. Pass it on to your friends who might be interested in applying to Informatics! The application date is coming up on April 15. And of course, feel free to post it on your social networking pages, etc. (I need to talk to them about putting the video under CC). For more information about Informatics check out the Ischool website.
Topics: Informatics, Ischool, UW | No Comments »
SU Law: Increasing Access to Justice Through Technology, Bob Cohen
By Brian Rowe | March 26, 2008
Bob Cohen gave a great talk today at Seattle University Law on using technology to reach under-served populations. Here are my notes on the talk:
The general rule you need to keep in mind when working with low income folks is that only 20 percent have access to legal services. This means that access to justice is not the reality in the system and that the justice system may be viewed negatively due to the real lack of access.
Orange County uses a three tier approach to providing legal services:
- 1st Tier - Initial Access = Once people access the system it is often very late in the legal process. A key is getting connected with people ASAP in the legal process. For Orange County this means providing hotlines where people can call in with issues and physical locations where people can come and ask questions.
- 2nd Tier - Interactive Community Assistance Network I-CAN! This is a system that works with clients to create documents to file directly with a court. This was extended to IRS tax filings in 2004 which directly helps households file taxes and gain earn income tax credits. www.icanefile.org
- 3rd Tier - Access to attorneys - This is primarily for individuals who are facing actions in court. Unfortunately only 30 to 40 percent of the need is meet at this level due to financial limits.
Beyond providing services Bob also focused on how to communicate your message for the public. One of those strategies is the communicate through new media. An example of this the Maria Shriver EITC Initiative You-Tube video.
This provides a way to both educate the public about programs and a proactive media approach for creating a positive image of the program. This event was hosted by Public Interest Law Foundation and Students for Free Culture.
Topics: Bob Cohen, Public Interest, SFFC, SU Law | 2 Comments »
Ischool Blogs
By Brian Rowe | February 8, 2008
The Silverfish, a publication of University of Washington’s Ischool, now has a list of Ischool related blogs. The Ischool at UW has done a lot to reach out to Alumni and keep to update best practices as technology changes.
Disclaimer: I am a proud Graduate of the Informatics program of the ISchool and regularly attend events they host such as Kahle’s speech on Access to Knowelge.
Topics: Ischool | No Comments »
Endorsing Obama, 5 Reasons One Simple Choice
By Brian Rowe | January 30, 2008
Over the last 12 months I have been following the presidential campaign and one candidate has stood out to me as representing progressive technology policy while also focusing on other needed reforms.
Here are my 5 reasons for supporting Obama:
1. Obama can bring about Universal Health Care. We are the richest country in the world, and it is a blight that we do not provide the basic Human Right of Health Care for everyone to our people.
2. Obama realizes the importance of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the government, and he has specific tasks for this person, which will foster innovation.
3. Obama will ensure Network Neutrality. In the Information Age this is essential for enabling the people to have a real voice in a democracy.
4. Obama will end the war in Iraq. We were never justified to start the war in Iraq (No links to Al-Qada or WMDs) and we are only subsiding government contracts at the cost of American lives, by staying.
5. Obama is the only candidate with Passion that moves me on a personal and emotional level. Listening to him speak at Dr. King’s Church was moving. I feel hope that rings beyond just his word.
I, Brian Rowe, endorse Barack Obama for President.
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Upcomming Event: Making A Difference: Using Your Law Degree
By Brian Rowe | January 28, 2008
If you have the chance I recommend attending the “Making A Difference: Using Your Law Degree to Make the World a Better Place No Matter Where You Go in Your Career - and Life.”
Seattle University School of Law
Thursday, February 28, 2008
5:00 p.m. to 7:20 p.m. • Room C1
Seattle University School of Law, Sullivan Hall
12th and Columbia
Judge Horowitz and Professor McKay continue their popular series by focusing on the development of excellent professional skills and exploring the opportunities and barriers to serving the public interest as a lawyer. Working for the powerless and the poor requires that attorneys continuously learn and improve their skills throughout their careers. This requirement is essential not only to personal success, but as much, if not more, for making a difference in the lives of clients and in the community. Along with exciting guest speakers, Judge Horowitz and Professor McKay will explore opportunities for public service, lay bare existing barriers to these opportunities, and demonstrate the importance of skills development in attaining and exercising personal and professional freedom. They will explain and show how public service choices on often unpredictable opportunities and barriers can shape our professional lives – and our lives as a whole.
This is the third in the four-part series “Making A Difference: Using Your Law Degree to Make the World a Better Place No Matter Where You Go in Your Career - and Life,” aimed at encouraging students, lawyers and others to make a place for public service in their careers and their lives.
To view videos of the first two symposiums, go to: http://media.law.seattleu.edu/public/events/events.htm
Topics: Public Service, SU Law | No Comments »