A2K4 Panel II: Technologies of Dissent: Information and Expression in a Digital World. This Friday at 11.30 a.m.

Some of you may be interested in attending the Yale Information Society Project's A2K conference, taking place this Friday and Saturday (February 12-13, 2010).

Access to knowledge (A2K) is about designing intellectual property laws, telecommunication policies, and technical architectures that encourage broader participation in cultural, civic, and educational affairs; expand the benefits of scientific and technological advancement; and promote innovation, development, and social progress across the globe.

A2K4: Access to Knowledge & Human Rights, A Conference Hosted by the Information Society Project, is the fourth A2K conference hosted by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. This year's conference will focus on the intersection between access to knowledge and human rights. If you'd like to attend, you can register here.

In light of our discussions about government interference with individual expression in the digital age, Friday's panel on Technologies of Dissent: Information and Expression in a Digital World may be of particular interest to students in this class. This panel explores A2K issues relevant to classic civil and political rights, particularly freedom of expression. It will take place 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. in Room 127 of the law school.

Political expression and dissent are increasingly exercised online, through technologies ranging from social networking tools, blogs, email, and cell phones to more concealed and complex technical approaches such as the use of distributed denial of service attacks to disrupt government servers. Some governments have responded to new forms of digital dissent with new forms of technological repression.

The same technologies that expand opportunities to engage in legitimate political protest have created unprecedented privacy concerns; of particular concern is the practice of deep packet inspection allowing scrutiny by governments, often through private industry, of the details of users’ text messages, web searches, and emails.

Speakers:

• Anupam Chander, UC Davis School of Law
• Laura DeNardis, Yale Information Society Project
• Theresa Harris, Human Rights USA
• Eddan Katz, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Moderator:

• Nabiha Syed, Yale Information Society Project

More information is available on the Yale ISP's website.