Victoria Espinel, the Obama administration’s intellectual property enforcement coordinator (“IP Czar”) is undertaking a serious review of American intellectual property enforcement policy. To her credit, she is asking for public input on how they should approach their task, though much of the document makes erroneous assumptions about the need for “enhanced enforcement” and the unmitigated “harms to the American economy” from intellectual property infringement. The economic reality that too much intellectual property actually harms the American economy is not present in the request for public information, making our job and input even more important.

The input should take two parts:

In the first, the IPEC seeks written submissions from the public regarding the costs to the U.S. economy resulting from intellectual property violations, and the threats to public health and safety created by infringement. In the second part, the IPEC requests detailed recommendations from the public regarding the objectives and content of the Joint Strategic Plan and other specific recommendations for improving the Government’s intellectual property enforcement efforts. Responses to this request for comments may be directed to either of these two parts, or both, and may include a response to one or more requests for information found in either part.

Submissions are due on or before Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 5 p.m. and should be directed to intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov.

In the meantime, what topics and approaches should we, as a community, cover?

[Via BoingBoing]

Adi Kamdar, the President of Yale Students for Free Culture, was recently featured on the BBC for a story about Yale’s switch to Google Apps for services such as GMail. The change to cloud computing, especially at the education level, raises important questions about autonomy, privacy and functionality. Adi and his chapter have been raising public awareness through venues such as an opinion piece in the student newspaper:

And for all the benefits of Gmail, there are some very real concerns. As students, we need to know that Yale has signed a contract with Google guaranteeing certain provisions. Right now, the transition to Gmail depends on Google’s generosity to provide this service without cost or advertisements. If Google decides to charge in the future, what are the ramifications for Yale? We have not heard how much control, if any, ITS and the University will have over backups, data security and migration. We don’t know where the Gmail servers will be located and what privacy protections legally apply in that jurisdiction. At Brown, for instance, mail can be stored in “datacenters outside the borders of the United States” according to the university’s Web site. In addition, no one has told us how much access Google and its data mining algorithms will have to Yale e-mail. Even if Google and ITS do have all the answers, we are entitled to at least ask the questions.

To listen to the BBC piece on the topic, check out their site within the next week or Adi’s blog.

On February 25th, 2010, Lawrence Lessig will deliver a talk on fair use and politics in online video from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. Open Video Alliance and the Harvard Berkman Center are teaming up to provide a live webcast—you can tune in at http://openvideoalliance.org/lessig, or attend in person at one of many screening events. For free culture chapters, it is a great opportunity to bring your group together—check out the list of screenings or arrange your own.

Use this as an opportunity to convene a discussion, or start a workshop, or get your group off the ground!

Lessig’s talk will explore copyright in a digital age, and the importance of a doctrine like fair use. Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, and is essential for commentary, criticism, news reporting, remix, research, teaching and scholarship with video. As a medium, online video will be most powerful when it is fluid, like a conversation. Like the rest of the internet, online video must be designed to encourage creative expression and political participation, not just passive consumption.

If you want to host your own screening, fill out the form at http://openvideoalliance.org/event/lessig-registration/. Small grants are available to pay facilities fees, refreshments, or materials. If you have questions or comments, or if you’d like to get more information about hosting your own event, you can contact the event organizers at conference@openvideoalliance.org.

Free Culture X is only two weeks away. If you have not yet registered, now is the time to do it! Register now!

Give a dollar, $25, $100—it’s up to you. 100% of the proceeds will fund future Students for Free Culture projects. To sweeten the deal for you, we’re announcing some cool gifts:

•If you register at $50 or more, get a DVD with the complete Free Culture 2008 videos archive

•If you register at $75 or more, get a signed copy of one of these books:

• Remix by Lawrence Lessig OR
• Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

•If you register at $100 or more, get one of these badges of coolness:

• a yourname@freeculture.org email address OR
• a custom answering machine greeting by none other than cyberscholar Jonathan Zittrain

Just register by February 9th at your chosen level and we’ll contact you to get your gift preferences. Gifts are cumulative, so if you register at $100 or more you get a DVD, a signed book, and a badge of coolness. Gifts apply to all previous registrations, too.

Questions? Email board@freeculture.org.