Gizmos matter. This is the message from Wendy Seltzer and Jason Schultz. In this talk from ETech 2005, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's staff attorneys present a list of tools that are threatened by legislative attempts to control technologies. Legislation like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Induce Act are jeopardizing the very ability to innovate.

While the death of a DVD jukebox may seem insignificant, it is indicative of a legislative climate that is outright hostile to creators of new technologies. Some technologies have already been destroyed by legal challenges, and creators are starting to be forced to ask permission before they build. This presentation is a call to arms for technologists and users alike.

See the endangered species list at eff.org.

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Wendy Seltzer is a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. A Fellow with Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, she founded and leads the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. ChillingEffects.org collects and analyzes cease-and-desist notices sent to Internet users, and provides information to help these users understand their rights in response. She was also an adjunct professor at St. John's University School of Law this past fall, teaching Internet Law. Ms. Seltzer is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.

Jason Schultz is a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in intellectual property and reverse engineering. Prior to joining EFF, Mr. Schultz worked at the law firm of Fish & Richardson P.C., where he spent most of his time invalidating software patents and defending open source developers in law suits. While at F&R, he co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of the Internet Archive, Prelinger Archives, and Project Gutenberg in support of Eric Eldred's challenge to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. During law school, Mr. Schultz served as Managing Editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and helped found the Samuelson Clinic, the first legal clinic in the country to focus on high tech policy issues and the public interest. Mr. Schultz also has undergraduate degrees in Public Policy and Women's Studies from Duke University. Jason maintains a personal blog at lawgeek.net.

Resources:

• Endanged Devices List

This presentation is one of a series from the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference held in San Diego, California, March 14-17, 2005.

For Team ITC:

• Description editor: Darusha Wehm
• Post-production audio engineer: Stuart Hunter