Robin Gross
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Robin Gross is founder of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization that promotes intellectual property law and defends freedom of expression
She was the first intellectual property attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1999, and challenged the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as unconstitutional.
The following is an introductory email she sent to a mailing list in 2004. (It gives plenty of info about her, but more importantly it can be used as the basis for an article)
I am founder and Executive Director of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property law and defends freedom of expression (www.ipjustice.org).
I began my legal career as the first intellectual property attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1999. I launched EFF's work on intellectual property issues and was the director of its Campaign for Audiovisual Free Expression. I defended 2600 Magazine, Norwegian Jon Johansen, and other DeCSS posters in court, challenging the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as unconstitutional. We won in California Supreme Court upholding the right of Web publishers to post DeCSS against trade secret claims.
I also successfully defended Streamcast (Morpheus P2P software) and helped to set the legal precedent in the US that P2P software is lawful under the 'Betamax' standard. In another DMCA case, I defended Princeton scientists' right to publish technical information describing the weaknesses in the recording industry's technology to control digital music. And I successfully represented Replay TV owners against Hollywood's claims that their use of digital VCRs was illegal.
Earlier this year, I organized an international campaign of over 50 civil liberties groups to reform the EU Intellectual property Rights Enforcement Directive. The CODE Campaign was successful in removing the directive's ban on technical devices that bypass IP holders' restrictions, and we got the criminal provisions deleted from the final directive.
At WSIS in Geneva in 2003, I gave a keynote speech at the World Forum on Communications Rights and argued that in an information society, communication rights are human rights. Right now, I'm in Chile advising Latin American policy makers on how to implement the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement's IP chapter as harmlessly as possible. Next week, I'll be in Geneva at meetings to reform WIPO.
I have also been active against the IP Chapter of the Free Trade Area of the America's Treaty, and WIPO's proposed Broadcasting Treaty. I am also engaged in the ICANN Non-Commercial User's Constituency.
I have spent my entire professional career defending the rights of Internet users and free software programmers against over-zealous intellectual property rights holders.
External links
- IP Justice (http://www.ipjustice.org)