CSLI Calendar of Public Events, Correction 3 April 2003

[Emma Pease <emma@csli.Stanford.EDU>]

The following talk was incorrectly listed as being at 4:15pm.  It is
at 3:15pm

FRIDAY, 4 APRIL 2003
 3:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum
        Bldg. 420:041 (Jordan Hall)
        "Open Networks in the Digital Information Age:
        The Economic, Legal and Political Importance of Access"
        Mark N. Cooper
        Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America, Washington, D.C.
        http://symsys.stanford.edu:8081/ssp-dynamic/servlet/ssp_events
        Abstract below

                             ____________

                    SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
                   on Friday, 4 April 2003, 3:15pm
                     Bldg. 420:041 (Jordan Hall)
    http://symsys.stanford.edu:8081/ssp-dynamic/servlet/ssp_events
               (note unusual time, date, and location)

            "Open Networks in the Digital Information Age:
       The Economic, Legal and Political Importance of Access"
                        Mark N. Cooper, Ph.D.
                         Director of Research
           Consumer Federation of America, Washington, D.C.

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is the nation's largest consumer
advocacy organization.  Among many other issues, CFA has been heavily
involved in political and legal debates concerning the regulation of the
Internet and telecommunications industries.  The CFA's director of
research, Mark Cooper, argues that network industries tend toward
monopolization, and has written and lectured widely on the need to protect
open access to the Internet and freedom from monopoly power.  He will
discuss CFA's and other organizations' pending lawsuit against the FCC
challenging its decision last year to classify cable broadband as an
"information service" instead of a "telecommunication service".  This case
has far-reaching implications for the future of the Internet, which was
built on the premise that service providers must give their customers
equal access to all content.  The ruling opens the way for the Internet to
become more like cable television: a proprietary, filtered service in
which providers can discriminate against or block access to some content
and favor their own, and it may be extended to DSL and other Internet
providers in the future.  Dr. Cooper's presentation will introduce these
issues, and will be followed up on Saturday by a day-long conference at
Stanford on related issues, entitled "Access: Broadband and the Digital
Future"
http://www.labortech.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=3