The Ivy League school will host an academic conference on search engine law, and provide a backdrop for speakers from Google, the Authors Guild, and other organizations.
Panel 3 at the “Regulating Search?” conference on December 3rd at Yale should be pretty lively. Out of the four panels taking place, this one will feature representatives from Google and the Authors Guild, otherwise known on court dockets as “defendant” and “plaintiff” as litigation about Google Print continues.
The organizers at Yale do appear to have their eye on current events, specifically the kerfuffle over Google’s intent to scan books unless publishers ask Google not to include a title. Here’s part of the description for the panel on Search Engines and Intellectual Property (emphasis added):
“This panel will review past and present litigation involving search engines and claims framed in the legal doctrines of copyright, trademark, patent, and right of publicity. Whether search engines are innocent intermediaries, heroic crusaders for open access, or villainous agents of infringement depends on who you ask–as does the appropriate legal response.”
People from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Microsoft will join the other members of the panel.
A panel on the Search Space will discuss the search engine industry in general terms, and try to identify trends and predict future developments. Another panel on Public Regulation focuses on the potential of the government taking a role in directly regulating search.
The fourth panel has Individual Rights as its search engine topic. Privacy concerns look to be foremost here, and the description touches on how search engines collect data about their users along with other topics like free speech and anonymous searching.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
