PASADENA, Calif.—Legal issues surrounding file-sharing and digital copyrighting will be the focus of a conference and mock trial to be held Friday, May 21, in Beckman Auditorium on the California Institute of Technology campus in Pasadena.
The conference is titled "United States v. Baltimore: A Prosecution Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," and is the fifth annual At the Crossroads of Law and Technology Conference and Mock Trial, a series cosponsored by Caltech, Loyola Law School, with this specific event cosponsored by the Loyola Entertainment Law Symposium. The conference is open to anyone, but the organizers request advance registration to help planning.
The mock trial will involve a hypothetical scenario in which individuals will be "prosecuted" for file-sharing violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the No Electronic Theft Act, or other federal laws. "The growing cultural divide between content providers and a generation of users with vastly different expectations and understandings of 'rights' will be explored during the trial," says Ed McCaffery, visiting professor of law at Caltech.
The case will be presided over by the Honorable Ronald Lew, U.S. District Court. Students and alumni from Caltech and Loyola will act as prosecution and defense attorneys, as well as the bench and law clerks. The student teams will be advised by practicing attorneys, including assistant U.S. attorneys for the prosecution team.
The mock trial will be preceded by a short "mockumentary," featuring the acting debut of Caltech president David Baltimore.
Registration and a complimentary lunch begin at 11:30 a.m. outside Beckman Auditorium. The technology overview and legal background will be discussed from 12:30 to 2 p.m., and the mock trial will be held from 2:15 to 4:45 p.m. After a presentation on alternative methods for protecting digital content, the judge's decision will be returned.
To register for the conference, contact Vlasto Lebo at (213) 736-1045. Online registration forms are available at http://techlaw.lls.edu. Four hours of Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit may be obtained for an optional fee of $50.
Written by Robert Tindol