Internet "Neutrality": Reform or "Fairness Doctrine" Censorship?

When: Monday, March 29, 2010. 11:30am (Registration); 11:45am (Lunch); 12:00-1:15 (Panel discussion)
Where: Chapman University School of Law, Kennedy Hall, Room 237A/B, 1 University Drive, Orange, CA 92866.
Parking: Visitors may park in the Orange Lot, the Cypress Lot, or the Marion Knott Studios Lot. Click here for a map of the Chapman campus area. Temporary parking permits may be purchased from permit dispensers in the lot.  Be sure to place the permit face-up on your dashboard. Permits cost $2 for 2 hours.
Cost: $30 for buffet luncheon and 1 hour MCLE credit. The Federalist Society is a California Sate Bar approved provider of MCLE.
Special price for Judges and Faculty: $15 (payment by check only)
FREE FOR STUDENTS if you RSVP by March 26.  $5 at the door on March 29.  This is a great networking opportunity for students interested in IP, media, or entertainment law.

Panel: Prof. Christopher Yoo (Univ. of Pennsylvania Law School), Mr. John Shaeffer, Esq. (Lathrop & Gage), Prof. Larry Downes (Member, Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society)
Moderator: Prof. Tom Bell (Chapman University Law School)

Does the Internet need saving? Should the Internet should be regulated? If so, how and to what extent? Does “net neutrality” provide First Amendment protections for the Internet or will regulation stifle investment, innovation, and the growth of the Internet.  Is net neutrality just a "fairness doctrine" for the Internet? What is the government's interest in regulating Internet access, content, and resources?

• Will Net Neutrality stop your internet service provider from filtering spam e-mails, preventing the spread of computer viruses, and preventing online identity theft?
• Will the government use Net Neutrality as a guise to monitor and censor speech on the Internet?  Advocates on Face the Nation have discussed monitoring anti-governement Internet speech as a way to stop such recent attacks as the plane-crash into the Texas IRS building and the shooting at the Pentagon.
• Without Net Neutrality, will telecommunications companies be the de facto "gatekeepers" of the Internet with the power to determine what sites and content you can view?  Will telecos censor speech by discriminating in favor of their own search engines and services and block or slow network traffic to competitor websites? 
• With Net Neutrality, will you (and your clients) pay more?  Or pay less?

Prof. Christopher S. Yoo  is Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer and Information Science and Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is one of the nation’s leading authorities on law and technology. His research focuses on how economic theories of imperfect competition are transforming the regulation of the Internet and other forms of electronic communications. He has been a leading voice in the “network neutrality” debate that has dominated Internet policy over the past several years. He is also pursuing research on copyright theory as well as the history of presidential power. He is the author (with Daniel F. Spulber) of Networks in Telecommunications: Economics and Law (Cambridge, 2009) and (with Steven G. Calabresi) of The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush (Yale, 2008). Prof. Yoo testifies frequently before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.

Mr. John Shaeffer, Esq. is the partner in charge of the Los Angeles office of Lathrop & Gage.  He also teaches New Media Law at Santa Clara School of Law.  Mr. Shaeffer has extensive litigation experience and has litigated some of this nation's largest and most challenging antitrust, product liability, intellectual property and environmental cases in both state and federal court.  Mr. Shaeffer received his law degree from the University of Santa Clara School of Law, magna cum laude, in 1988.

Prof. Larry Downes is a consultant and speaker on developing business strategies in an age of constant disruption caused by information technology.  Downes is author of the Business Week and New York Times business bestseller, “Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance” (Harvard Business School Press, 1998), which has sold nearly 200,000 copies and was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five most important books ever published on business and technology.  His new book, “The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces that Govern Business and Life in the Digital Age” (Basic Books 2009) offers nine strategies for success in the emerging world of information law. It combines Downes’s unique perspective on economics, law, and innovation in the digital age.  He is currently a nonresident Fellow with the Stanford Law School Center for Internet & Society.

Professor Tom Bell joined the faculty of Chapman University School of Law in 1998. He specializes in high-tech legal issues and has written a variety of papers on Intellectual Property and Internet Law. Professor Bell received his JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1993, where he served both as a member of the University of Chicago Law Review and as Articles Editor and cofounder of the University of Chicago Legal Roundtable. Prior to joining the Chapman faculty, he served as Director of Telecommunications and Technology Studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In addition to writing a steady stream of scholarly works, Professor Bell has appeared on or been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Los Angeles Times, and many other news sources. He teaches Intellectual Property, Internet Law, Advanced Seminar on Copyright Law, Entertainment Law, International Entertainment Law, Tort Law, Contract Law, and Agency and Partnership.

To RSVP and pay by credit card: Select Option 2 $30.00 and click the Pay Now button on the top left panel
To RSVP for payment by check or cash: Send e-mail to: karenlugojd@gmail.com.  Judges and Faculty must pay by check or cash since PayPal does not accept a $15 charge at this time.  No cost for students who RSVP by March 26! Students should e-mail their RSVP and indicate what school they attend.