Notice: new location; new time (for this meeting only). Meeting notice: The 00.02.15* meeting will be held at the fundraiser for the Electronic Frontier Foundation ("challenging industry and government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the information society") at the Downtown Harvard Club (One Federal St.) from 5:30 to 8:30. While the EFF has many irons in the fire, this fundraiser is understood as raising funds to defray the costs of support for two sets of cases: those proceeding from the efforts of the Digital Video Disk Content Control Association and the Motion Picture Association of America to control the distribution of code decrypting the files stored on DVD disks, via a strategy known as 'suing the internet'. While details can be found on the EFF site (www.eff.org), the importance of both suites of cases is that they expand current definitions of intellectual property. The DVDCCA is claiming that persons can be held liable for disclosing trade secrets even in the absence of a signed agreement to keep them private ("if you download this, you have agreed to the following provisions"); the MPAA is suing under a provision in the Digital Copyright Millennium Act that makes it illegal to reverse engineer encryption processes; and both sets of cases claim the right -- this is the 'suing the internet' part - - to enjoin websites that link to other sites serving disputed content. The EFF, and so far as I know most of the technical community, finds these claims technically ludicrous and constitutionally insidious. Nonetheless, judges in both New York and San Francisco have been persuaded to issue preliminary injunctions on these grounds, which apparently means they believe these claims will eventually be upheld. While there are more immediate issues of concern if the law should embrace these theories, there are implications for NT as well. Nanotechnology is often depicted as a manufacturing process, organized around atoms; however, from the point of view of the larger economy, it is a function of the definition and state of enforceable intellectual property, since NT is what assemblers are or are not told to do (atoms being assumed to be freely available everywhere). If you believe that developing NT is primarily capital limited and that assuring safety will require very tight security procedures, it might make sense to opt for IP definitions that gave established institutions the largest stake. More restrictive definitions of IP follow if you believe that development is constrained by the number engaged in it, and that safety depends on as many people as possible acquiring the deepest pool of experience as soon as they can. Those with the latter point of view will have one more reason to join us on the 15th. *the meeting is at 00.02.15, not 00.02.08. Don't be confused by this notice's arriving a week early. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> The Members of The Digital Commerce Society of Boston, GTE/BBN, Fleet BankBoston, @Stake, Swiggart & Agin, LLC and The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation, invite the Digital Commerce Community to cocktails and an evening fundraiser for the recent litigation efforts of THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION With special guests David Farber Harvey Silverglate Lori Fena and others Tuesday Evening February 15, 2000 5:30 to 8:30 PM The Downtown Harvard Club of Boston One Federal Street, 38th Floor Boston Free hors d'oeuvres Cash Bar Beautiful views of Boston Harbor at night Requested minimum donation $35 The event's goal is $10,000 RSVP Robert Hettinga, Moderator, The Digital Commerce Society of Boston, The Harvard Club of Boston has a dress code... <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> Announcement Archive: http://www.pobox.com/~fhapgood/nsgpage.html. <-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> If you wish to subscribe to this list (perhaps having received a sample via a forward) send the string 'subscribe nsg' to majordomo@world.std.com. Unsubs follow the same model. Discussion should be sent to nsg-d@world.std.com, which must be subscribed to separately. You must be subscribed to nsg-d to post to it and you must post from the address from which you subscribed (An anti-spam thing). Comments, petitions, and suggestions re list management to: nsg@pobox.com