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boalt.org:
a Boalt student group working for the public interest in technology law
our mission
boalt.org's
purpose is threefold.
- To promote the public interest in technology
law both on the U.C.
Berkeley campus and beyond. This is our primary purpose and will be
detailed separately below.
- To promote open technology resources at Boalt
Hall, and to
increase student access to and understanding of such resources.
- To promote relations between the current
boalt.org community and
at least the following groups: (a) Other Boalt Hall organizations, (b)
other campus groups with intersecting interests, (c) external groups
with intersecting interests, (d) Boalt Hall alumni.
Promoting the Public Interest in
Technology Law
Advances in
technology affect the law
dramatically. boalt.org believes that as technology advances, the
public interest should be at the forefront as the related laws advance.
The intersections of law and technology where the public interest
should be paramount can be divided into two broad categories.
I. Civil Liberties
and Civil Rights
In this category,
boalt.org believes
that our traditional civil liberties should be maintained in the new
contexts that advancing technologies create. Relevant issues would
include: Free Speech on the Internet, Online Privacy, Promoting Equal
Access to Technology, the Right to Have One's Vote Counted, the Freedom
to Read in an Increasingly Digital Context, Free Speech on the
Airwaves, Rights of Anonymity, etc.
II. Innovation in
Technology, Science,
and Creative Arts
In this category,
boalt.org believes
that laws regarding innovation have as their primary purpose the
benefit of the public. Congress has the power to grant exclusive rights
to innovators in order to promote such innovation, but those exclusive
rights are to be limited so as to produce the greatest public benefit.
Relevant issues would include: Preserving a Robust Public Domain,
Reforms to Copyright, Patent, Trademark, and Trade Secret Laws,
Encouraging Collaborative Innovation by Technologists, Scientists, and
Artists, Preserving Rights of Fair Use, etc.
Achieving boalt.org's Purposes
The following
enumerations are
representative of, rather than the exclusive means by which boalt.org
will achieve its purposes.
To promote the
public interest in
technology law, boalt.org will
- Sponsor speakers on an ongoing basis on topics
within this area.
- Provide summer fellowships to Boalt students
taking an unpaid or
significantly underpaid law-related position, supervised by an
attorney, with organizations that pursue the public interest in
technology law. These organizations include, but are not limited to,
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy and Technology,
the Electronic Privacy Information Center,
the Cyberliberties
Division of the ACLU (Northern California), the Cyberliberties
Division of the ACLU, Consumers
Union, the Free Software Foundation,
the Public Patent Foundation, Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility, the Free
Expression Policy Project, and IP
Justice.
- Prepare educational resources on these issues
for wide
distribution.
To promote open
technology resources
at Boalt, boalt.org will
- Work with the administration to provide more
such physical
resources.
- Provide educational resources regarding the use
of such
technologies.
To promote relations
between the
current boalt.org community and others, boalt.org will
- Advertise speakers to the entire campus
community and welcome
their attendance.
- Seek out other campus groups with related
interests and work with
them on cosponsored projects.
- Foster contact with boalt.org alumni and Boalt
Hall alumni
generally who share our interests.
- Create and maintain relationships with
community groups and
organizations that share related goals.
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