Internet politics – a seminar on ACTA and public/private relations

Recent months have been marked by heated debates about the extent to which the Internet can and should be controlled and regulated. In the US this debate has mainly revolved around a proposed Internet legislation named SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), while the European debate has largely focused on the international trade agreement, ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), which aims at establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. Critics of these regulative frameworks (ranging from Google and Wikipedia to ‘hacktivist’ movements such as Anonymous) have emphasized the role they will play in destroying the Internet as an open communications platform, questioned the extent to which they give private actors excessive powers, and lamented the lack of transparency and involvement in their formulation. Proponents (such as the Recording Industry Association of America) have, on the other hand, pointed to the necessity of protecting intellectual property rights and innovation through regulation.

The research initiative Internet Politics – funded by the CBS Public/Private Platform – invites you to a seminar where Lise Fuhr (Director of The Danish Internet Forum) and Martin von Haller Grønbæk (IT lawyer) will discuss these developments. The discussion will focus on the way these regulative frameworks challenge existing boundaries between public and private actors, the way commercial and public interests have been balanced in the development of these frameworks and the extent to which the relatively closed process surrounding the drafting of ACTA may have influenced its public reception.

The seminar will take place at 14.00 on April 11, 2012 at Copenhagen Business School, Porcelænshaven 18B, in the seminar room on the ground floor (S-0.23). It is open to all, but please register in advance by emailing Simon Holm Klange: shk.ikl@cbs.dk

For other questions, please contact Mikkel Flyverbom, Associate Professor, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management: mfl.ikl@cbs.dk or 3815 3375, or Anders Koed Madsen, PhD student, Department of Organization: akm.ioa@cbs.dk