Stories about: Stanford Law School

Fighting insomnia one night, all Robert Topolski wanted to do was send digital recordings of 19th-century barbershop quartet music to some friends.

Microsoft's threat to sue open source software users who violate its patents could be hardest on startups and smaller companies unable to take on the software giant, business and legal observers say.

Creative Commons, the grass-roots content licensing system that has taken hold amongst bloggers and other content creators online, could soon be arriving in your digital camera.

When was the last time you saw a keynote speaker at a technology conference get a standing ovation? That honour was bestowed on Lawrence Lessig, the opening speaker at the recent LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco, who called on the audience to join his fight to promote what he calls free culture.

The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo kicked off last week with a keynote address by Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, who told a packed audience the open source community's work doesn't end with an operating system and applications. The battle now is in creating a free culture in which the creation and consumption of content are not hindered by stringent copyright laws, Lessig said. He said that while large media and network companies such as Amazon, Apple, AT&T and Comcast may be controlling how people consume content, there is a growing "read-write" culture in which content is modified and shared via the Internet.

Silicon Valley needs to step up and protect the open traditions that have helped build the high-technology industry or run the risk of being dominated by "IP extremists" whose restrictions on the use of intellectual property (IP) would stifle innovation, Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig told the audience at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco Tuesday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing Wednesday morning that examines the U.S. government's proposed settlement in its landmark antitrust case against Microsoft Corp.

The next directors' meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - the organization that oversees the Net's domain-name system - promises to be a rowdy affair. In a global online vote that ended last night, two of the most radical candidates were elected to its board.

Elizabeth Echols, 39, stands astride a virtual divide. On one side, consumer and privacy advocates cry out for increased fraud and privacy protection through stricter internet regulations. On the other, corporations resist any internet regulation or taxation that could derail chances of fully exploiting e-commerce. Echols, dubbed the country's e-commerce czar, is charged with somehow making both sides happy.

The US Justice Department said on Friday that Microsoft's introduction of a new release of its Internet Explorer Web browser has weakened the company's defence in its antitrust trial.