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American Bar Association
Section of Science & Technology LawIn This Issue
- CAN SPAM Act
- Human Genome Project Conference - Tapes Available
- New Section Committees
- "PKI without Tears"
- Upcoming CLE Meetings
Volume 1 Issue 1
Message from the Chair, by Heather D. Rafter Welcome to the first edition of the Section of Science & Technology’s law electronic newsletter, e-BLAST. As the Section that brings you the latest information on developments at the frontiers of law, science and technology, we also are working hard to improve how we deliver information and content to our members.
This year we have several new committees we invite you to join. They include the Open Source committee in the Computer Law Division and the Standing Committee on Nanotechnology. Full descriptions and a committee sign-up form are included below.
Our Section has published several new publications this year, all available to our members at a discount. They are the "International Guide to Combating Cybercrime" and and the soon-to be published Information Security Handbook. If you are interested in electronic commerce, you may want to review the PKI Assessement Guidelines, which examines the issues relating to use of public keys and digital signatures, and finally, John North of Atlanta, GA and Cynthia Cwik of San Diego, CA have released Scientific Evidence Review Monograph No. 6: Admissibility and Use of Expert Evidence in the Courtroom. Links to each of these books are available on the Section's website.
We also are offering members the opportunity to attend some upcoming programs at a discount. They include the 2004 Copyright Update, which we are co-sponsoring with Glasser LegalWorks, as well as the RSA 2004 Conference. New this year the Section is co-sponsoring the ABA Intellectual Property Law Spring meeting on April 1 and 2, in Washington, DC. If you missed the 2003 Annual Meeting, we offered an outstanding slate of programs, ranging from a general counsel round table to a one-of-kind hands on program on digital evidence. We also offered programs on genetics, privacy, and a program that provided the nuts and bolts on biotech and nanotech start-ups. Our program materials are available free of charge on our Section’s website.
Feel free to contact Shawn Taylor Kaminski, our Section Director at skaminski@staff.abanet.org or me hrafter@digidesign.com if you want any more information.
Genetics Conference Brings Lawyers, Scientists and Doctors Together, by Gilbert F. Whittemore The Section Presented a one-of-a -kind genetics conference entitled "Working at the Frontiers of Law and Science: Applications of the Human Genome" on October 2-3, 2003, in Chapel Hill North Carolina. Cosponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Medical Association, the program considered a wide range of legal issues emerging as work on human genetics proceeds...
Further information and tape sales
New Committees The Section has created two new substantive committees for the 2003-2004 Bar year one on Open Source Licensing and another on Nanotechnology.
"PKI Without Tears," by Stephen Wilson Traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is unnecessarily complicated. Largely as a result of early misconceptions that we needed an all-purpose digital passport to do business on the Internet, traditional PKI has become overloaded with invasive personal identity checks and complex legal arrangements. To make things worse, early software implementations brought out explicit details of digital certificates, necessitating unusually intense user training. To try to support stranger-to-stranger transactions, user agreements for general purpose certificates have required people to read and understand huge and forbidding Certification Practice Statements. And yet the business benefits of going to all this trouble remain controversial.
Click here for the full article
CLE Opportunities January 26, 2004
Copyright Hot Topics
Washington, DC
For registration information call 973/890-0008 or go on line to www.glaserlegalworks.com
20% discount for Section Members
Co-Sponsored with Glasser LegalWorks and U.S. Copyright OfficeFebruary 4-6, 2004
The Genomics Revolution?
Baton Rouge, LA
For registration information call 225/578-8716 or go on line to http://host.law.lsu.edu/genomicsrevolution
Co-Sponsored with Louisiana State University Law CenterMarch 24-25, 2004
ABA Techshow
Chicago, IL
For registration information go on line to http://www.abanet.org/techshow
Use Program Promoter code PP19 to receive a $100 discount
Co-Sponsored with the ABA Law Practice Management SectionApril 1-2, 2004
19th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference
Washington, DC
For registration information go on-line to http://www.abanet.org/intelprop/spring2004/
Discount on registration fees for Section Members Co-Sponsored with the ABA Section of Intellectual Property LawApril 15-17, 2004
Sixth Annual Dispute Resolution Meeting
New York, NY
For Registration Information go on line to http://www.abanet.org/dispute/conference/6th
Co-Sponsored with the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution
CAN SPAM Act Overview, by Heather D. Rafter Overview of the CAN-SPAM Act
Ask almost any consumer or business, and you will get agreement: unsolicited commercial electronic mail, or spam, as it is more commonly called, has become a pervasive problem. MessageLabs, an email security company, found that as of the end of 2003, spam was dramatically increasing, rising from fifty percent of all business email traffic in May to about two-thirds in December. As most of us know, these unwanted emails can run the gamut from get rich schemes, often from exiled leaders in a foreign land, to suggestions on ways to improve our bodies, our mortgage rates and even our social lives. The CAN-SPAM Act was one of many bills introduced into Congress in 2003 to address this problem of unsolicited email. Congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation in December, after more than six years of unsuccessful attempts to enact laws designed to curb spam. The Act addresses how companies may use email to communicate with both existing and potential customers.For full article, please click here
