Author________Case 3 “Intellectual Property” Draft Workshop Reader___________

“Affinity Groups”

            An “affinity group” is a term used by sociologists to describe people who identify with each other based on some combination of factors which may include common interests, origins, needs, or enemies.  Find your “affinity group” in Case 3’s articles:

Case

Author(s)  (Biases?)

Experts (Biases?)

"Infringers"/"Free-Information Advocates" (Biases?)

"Harry Potter"

J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkein, Christina Teresa, Vicki Dolenga, as "authors"; Scholastic, etc. as Publishers (Cha).

Rebecca Tushnet (Ass't. Prof, NYU); Neil Blair (Christopher Little Agency); Wendy Seltzer (Electronic Frontier Foundation); Hal Abelson (Prof. Computer Science) founder of Creative Commons (Stanford Law) (Cha).

Christna Teresa, Vicki Dolenga, as "authors"; Jennie Levine and Megan Morrison, as FF site owners (Cha).

"Dissertation"

Sean Gorman and John Young (architect and anti-nuclear activist), as "authors"; John McCarthy (SG Dissertation supervisor) and Laurie Schinter (Ass't. Prof and SG's research partner); Rajendra Kulkarni (SG instructor) (Blumenfeld).

Michael Vatis (National Infrastructure Protection Center); Catherine Allen (BITS technology group for financial services companies) (Blumenfeld).

John M. Derrick (CEO of Pepco Holdings--a power company); John Young (architect and anti-nuclear activist); Richard C. Clarke (former Counterterrorism in Bush White House); Brenton Greene, infrastructure coordinator dir. for Dep't. of Homeland Security (Blumenfeld).

 

Blumenfeld, Laura.  "Dissertation Could Be Security Threat: Student's Maps Illustrate Concerns About Public Information."   The Washington Post.  July 7, 2003.  A01.

Cha, Ariana Eunjung.  "Harry Potter and the Copyright Lawyer."  The Washington Post. June 18, 2003. A1.

1)  What do the members of your group believe are the most important principles at stake in this case? 

2)  What reasoning best supports your position?

3)  What kinds of things do members of your group want to happen, or to keep from happening, as a result of reading about this case?

4)  What affinity group(s) could constitute the greatest barrier to what your affinity group wants, and why?