Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 2:44 PM
This is the paper I wrote for the
CATaC'06 conference in Tartu, Estonia (June 28-July 1, 2006).
Abstract: The sharing of open content using free peer-to-peer technology is a challenge in a world dominated by intellectual property laws and high profile court cases against people and organisations accused of illicit file-sharing. From a legal perspective this challenge seems insurmountable for a global network that seeks to enable the sharing of local knowledge for local development. Feenberg's work on the democratisation of technology and Lessig's work on architecture as a regulatory modality helps to understand the role of technology in both constraining and protecting knowledge sharing. This paper describes how technology and techno-legal instruments such as software and content licenses can become tactical interventions in the regulation of knowledge sharing.
Paper is available online here (pdf).