University Computer Policy and Law Program
the program for Information Technology Ethics Education

Fred Cate, Professor of Law, Indiana University
Beth Cate, Associate University Counsel, Indiana University

April 17, 2008

Fred and Beth Cate discussed how the decentralized nature of university environments, with growing reliance on technologies that collect and store data, make it challenging to provide privacy and security for students, faculty and staff information. The role that sites such as juicycampus.com play in privacy and security, as well as notification breach law compliance, were discussed.

Professor Fred Cate specializes in information privacy and security law issues. He speaks frequently about these issues before industry, professional, and government groups and testifies regularly before Congress. He is a member of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Academic Advisory Board, the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention and Other National Goals, and the Research Steering Committee of the Center for Identity Management and Information Protection. He also serves as reporter for the American Law Institute's project on Principles of the Law on Government Access to and Use of Personal Digital Information.

Beth Cate is Associate General Counsel for Indiana University, and practices in a variety of areas, with emphases on intellectual property law and the law and ethics concerning research and the use of information technologies. She is currently serving as a member of the Board of Directors of National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA). Beth is also an adjunct member of the faculty in the University's School for Public and Environmental Affairs.

Fred and Beth Cate speak frequently together - listen to some of their conversations online.

Read a recent Educause Review article by Fred Cate.

Copyright Goes to Kindergarten:
The Cultural Work of Anti-Piracy Campaigns

4:00-5:30 P.M. | ILR 423

To curb unauthorized downloading, major film, music and software corporations have developed public education campaigns for K-12 classrooms that extol the virtues of copyright and the immorality of piracy within a purported educational framework. Schools are sometimes using these curricular materials to fulfill new state laws mandating copyright education.

Presented as educational, anti-piracy campaigns tend to perpetuate an industry-centric idea of what copyright is for, and how technology is meant to be used to try to reaffirm traditional hierarchies.

K-12 anti-piracy campaigns circumscribe set roles for kids to adopt in relation to computing, technology, information and digital culture. It's an attempt to solidify the distinction between producer and consumer, and works against the tide of emerging forms of creativity and collaboration.

Tarleton Gillespie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University, with affiliations in the Department of Science and Technology Studies and the Information Science program. His book, Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture, was published by MIT Press in June 2007.

On-Line Access to Court Records:
A Study of the Interaction of Technology with Law

4:00-5:00 P.M. | 301 College Avenue, large seminar room

In 2002, with almost no debate, US courts began using electronic filing systems. Under the earlier paper system, dating from the 13th century in England, court records were required to be kept public to maintain the accountability of the legal system.

Given the difficulty of accessing paper records, most legal files remained "practically obscure," thus still protecting the privacy of litigants. This accountability/privacy balance was dramatically changed by the shift to electronic court records, subjecting a treasure trove of sensitive information to unintended uses - from wholesale extraction by commercial data-miners to individual mischief by identity thieves. What is the proper balance between accountability and privacy in an age of electronic judicial information?

Peter Winn is an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice. He teaches privacy law at the University of Washington School of Law, and is a senior fellow at the University of Melbourne where he teaches cybercrime. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.