Ebook seminar

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Notes for soctech seminar planning, Spring 2005

Ebooks: Reading, Copyright, and Digital Rights

The goal of this seminar is to provide a forum for discussing copyright and DRM as applied to ebooks.

Schedule details

week-by-week breakdown FRAMEWORK SESSIONS:

Week 1: Intro

  • Discussion leader: Joshua?
  • Topics:
    • What is this course about, and why are we here?
    • basic definitions, discussion of what attendees want out of class
  • Post-reading: Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, ch. 7

Week 2: Nature of Digital Documents

  • Discussion leader: Joshua?
  • Topics:
    • basics of manufacture and distribution
    • featuring codecs, The Internet, Copyright, Licensing, and DRM
    • as distribution costs approach zero, what happens to production?

Week 3. Copyright of digital documents

  • Discussion leader: law person?
  • Topics:
    • Nothing new, but harder to enforce... or is it?
    • Is there any need for a public domain if I can access anything for a nickel?
    • Clinton whitepaper, Berne, WIPO
    • Celestial Jukebox

Week 4. Licensing of digital documents

  • Discussion leader: law person? (Bob Gomulkiewicz? Stuart Sutton?)
  • Topics:
    • It ain't copyright, but contract law!
    • The DMCA: DRM enforcement with no (legal) exceptions for the public
    • Dude, where's my 200 years of fair use caselaw?
    • Licenses that "guarantee your freedom to share and change" (Free

software and the Creative Commons)

THEME DAYS:

Week 5. "Can I check out this eBook?" in the library

  • Discussion leader: Joshua? Guest?
  • Topics:
    • complicated and expensive reading devices
    • potentially crippling legal problems

[1]

Week 6. Scholarly publishing

  • Discussion leader:
  • Topics:
    • do universities already pay production costs?
    • who needs pretty magazines when we've got [arxiv.org] (do the humanities)?
  • Tech Transfer and others might be interested

Week 7. DRM Technology

  • Discussion leader: CSE person?
  • Topics:
    • what exactly are "effective technological measures"?
    • Is the DCMA a problem for research?

Week 8. Preservation

  • Discussion leader: CSE person?
  • Topics:
    • will those created today be around in 100 years?
    • if so, how about reading those bits as an ebook?

Week 9. Digital documents in international development

  • Discussion leader: CSE person?
  • Topics:
    • Kahle's bookmobile, Million Book Project and others

Week 10. Accessibility

  • Discussion leader: CSE person?
  • Topics:
    • how much access should laws mandate?
    • something like NLS for the Blind and Physically Handicapped?

[2]


Past courses to mine for useful content

Floating readings

These are readings that haven't been matched to a date yet.

Resources to mine for other readings

Other notes

  • assumptions:
    • everyone will have at least a layman's understanding of terms
    • we can come up with one good discussable reading per session
    • a volunteer or assigned discussion facilitator for each session


How many days worth of class is this?