Charles Nesson is a Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School and Founder/Faculty Co-Director of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.  Nesson is also doing what many song downloaders would praise in legal fights with the RIAA.

Nesson is defending a Boston University undergraduate student in a case where the student is being taken to court for downloading copyrighted music.  Nesson is seeking out to prove that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional.  The RIAA uses this law as civil enforcement and to intimidate people into settling out of court.  Nesson believes that this method abuses the legal process.

Nesson’s goal is to “turn the courts away from allowing themselves to be used like a low-grade collection agency [Wired].”  Thus far only one case in relation to copyrighted music downloading has been taken to trial.  All other circumstances have been settled out of court.

Joel Tenenbaum is the graduate student being represented by Nesson.  Tenenbaum was sharing 816 music files on Kazaa in 2004.  He offered to settle with $500, but the RIAA demanded $12,000 instead.  If Tenenbaum’s actions were willful, he could be forced to pay $1 million.

Nesson believes that there are ways that the record industry could deter piracy without demanding large rewards from file sharing individuals.  The RIAA could provide music for free, but bundle it with ads.

[image credit: Harvard.edu]

As a new college graduate, it is of my interest to ensure to report about the involvement of higher institutions in the world of Web 2.0.   As you may know, I previously reported when the University of Wisconsin inked a deal with Google Print and how IBM added a Web 2.0 class to the University of Arizona.

Bill Gates officially signed as the commencement speaker at Harvard University’s graduation ceremony this year on June 7.
This is a big moment for Gates as he will be speaking at the very same university that he dropped out of.  A couple years ago, Steve Jobs (founder of Apple) delivered a very dynamic commencement speech at Stanford University.  I look forward to reading Mr. Gates’ transcript after the ceremony as well.

“I am very pleased that the Harvard community will have the opportunity to hear from Bill Gates on June 7,” stated Paul Finnegan, the president of the Harvard Alumni Association. “His contributions to the world of business and technology, and the great example he has set through his far-reaching philanthropy, will rightfully put him on center stage in Harvard Yard. I look forward to greeting him in June.”

Gates will receive an honorary degree from Harvard.

Another interesting announcement made today was that the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor is introducing a master’s program that focuses on social networking. 
Through the Michigan’s School of Information (SI), students will be able to register for the first graduate-degree specialization in social computing.  The program will also offer specializations in Incentive-Centered Design, Community Informatics, Information Analysis and Retrieval, Preservation of Information, Information Policy, Library and Information Services, Archives and Records Management, and Human-Computer Interaction.

“The depth of our curriculum in social computing is unparalleled. Rather than a single course as you might find in other programs, we offer a range of in-depth courses in the technologies and applications that are driving the Web 2.0 revolution,” stated professor Paul Resnick.

As a current Ann Arbor resident, I am glad to see the University of Michigan taking initiative in training students about the importance of Web 2.0.  Google founder, Larry Page and Skype founder, Niklas Zennström were both educated at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.