Berkman Buzz, week of August 13

BERKMAN BUZZ: A look at the past week's online Berkman conversations
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School
Week of August 13, 2007

What's going on... take your pick or browse below.

*Lawrence Lessig discusses the corrosive effects of political lobbying
*William McGeveran explains on-campus filtering
*Ethan Zuckerman discovers that Zimbabwe has blacklisted Global Voices Online
*John Palfrey offers thoughts on collaboration and creativity
*Tim Armstrong criticizes the Library of Congress for ignoring fair use
*Citizen Media Law Project: Regulating Blog Campaign Advocacy
*Weekly Global Voice: Kenya: Media Bill Faces Public Opposition

The full buzz.

"In an interview after YearlyKos, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga was keen to avoid making himself less relevant ("I can't imagine any way to make myself less relevant today than to come out" and announce his choice for the presidency he told the Times).  But there are times when we all have a duty to make ourselves a bit less relevant (I know, assuming a fact not in evidence)."
Lawrence Lessig, "On Clinton and Lobbyists"

"Earlier this summer I spoke at the Institute for Computer Policy and Law, a workshop for professionals responsible for IT  infrastructure in higher education. They were all abuzz about a campaign this spring and summer by the RIAA to target colleges and universities and demand that they take more actions to curb illegal downloading by their students."
William McGeveran, "Internet Filtering Mandates on Campus"

"What if Zimbabwe declared 'cyberwar' and no one noticed?  Evidently, Global Voices is one of the sources of 'virulent propaganda' to delegitimise 'our just struggle against 'Anglo-Saxons.'  We're one of 41 websites blacklisted by the ZANU-PF government, a list that includes the Washington Post and CNN, as well as the personal blog of our Zimbabwe correspondent, Zimpundit."
Ethan Zuckerman, "Zimbabwe Blacklists Global Voices"

"On the long flight from Boston to Shanghai, I read R. Keith Sawyer's recent book, Group Genius. It's definitely a worthwhile read for anyone who cares about how innovation really works as a functional matter; anyone who runs any kind of an organization; andanyone who ever struggles with trying to do something creative, whether alone or with others. Sawyer takes on the romantic myth of the solo author/inventor/genius with a
persuasive argument about 'the unique power of collaboration to generate innovation.'"
John Palfrey, "Keith Sawyer's Group Genius"

"Bill wrote here recently about his experiences teaching cyber and IP law to non-lawyers, many of whom might come to the table with erroneous preconceptions about how the law in this area works. Indeed, even lawyers and law professors sometimes find the rules on IP to be confusing and counterintuitive, in part because the underlying philosophical premises and overarching policy judgments in the IP arena are themselves so hotly
contested. One can only imagine, accordingly, the difficulties inherent in trying to explain intellectual property issues to children, an audience still less sophisticated than Bill's."
Tim Armstrong, "U.S. Government: Fair Use is Too Complex to
Explain to Kids"

"Allison Hayward, an assistant professor of law at George Mason University, has a new article coming out entitled Regulation of Blog Campaign Advocacy on the Internet: Comparing U.S., German, and EU Approaches. (Credit to Todd Zywicki at the Volokh Conspiracy for the tip.) Hayward writes in her abstract: In brief, U.S. law protects blogging content, but may impose restrictions on the source of political commentary by
barring certain funding sources."
David Ardia, "Regulating Blog Campaign Advocacy"

"The Kenyan media and human rights groups are protesting against the controversial Media Bill passed by the Kenyan Parliament last week. The Bill is waiting Presidents Mwai Kibaki's assent to become part of the Kenyan law. Kenyan bloggers have been analyzing it, blogging about demonstrations in opposition to the Bill and publishing photos of demonstrators in the streets of Nairobi."
Ndesanjo Macha, "Kenya: Media Bill Faces Public Opposition"