Information Society Project

The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is an intellectual center addressing the implications of the Internet and new information technologies for law and society, guided by the values of democracy, human development, and social justice.

Open Video Conference October 1-2
Registration is open for the Open Video Conference scheduled to take place at the Fashion Institute of Technology on October 1-2 in New York City. The Open Video Conference (OVC) is a multi-day summit of thought leaders in business, academia, art, and activism to explore the future of online video. The first Open Video Conference [...]

Yale ISP Annual Report Published
The Yale Information Society Project Annual Report, which highlights institutional and individual accomplishments for the 2009-2010 academic year, is now available for free download here. A special thanks to Lea Shaver, Perry Fetterman, Debbie Sestito and the 80 postdoctoral, student, faculty and affiliated ISP fellows who make the ISP such a successful intellectual community. A special [...]

Governmental Deliberations on Exemptions to the DMCA’s Ban on Circumvention
Today, following a rulemaking proceeding required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and administered by the U.S. Copyright Office, the Librarian of Congress announced six classes of works that would be exempt from the DMCA’s general ban on circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. Related to this [...]

MFIA Wins Appeal Seeking Access to Sealed Records
Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access (MFIA) Practicum scored another victory when a New York state appellate court ruled unanimously that documents in a civil lawsuit alleging corporate corruption were improperly sealed, and clarified the scope of the constitutional access right in the New York courts. Congratulations to Patrick Kabat and the MFIA [...]

Innovate/Activate Unconference on September 24-25
Save the date for Innovate/Activate: An Unconference on Intellectual Property and Activism, scheduled for September 24-25, 2010 at New York Law School. Special thanks to Chris Wong for his efforts organizing this interesting event, presented by the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School and co-organized by the Information Society Project [...]

Bilski & the Definition of Things That “Are Free for All to Use”
The Supreme Court today issued its long-anticipated opinion in the Bilski patent case, regarding a rejected application for patent protection over a method for hedging against the risk of price changes in the energy market. Hot off the presses: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-964.pdf. And at first glance, this complex mix of opinions seems rather inconclusive. Basically, [...]

Illuminating the impact of intellectual property law on innovation
Christina’s terrific piece on Copyright and Glee looks at IP law’s impact on cultural participation. But what about the impact of IP on access to new technologies? I’d like to take that up as the topic of my post, through a look at the little-known legal life of the light bulb. More than a century after its [...]