Presentation
Net Neutrality, the general principle that the network must remain neutral as to the contents transmitted over it, avoiding any discrimination based on the nature or the origin of the data, has become a hot topic worldwide. It is generally seen as a key feature of the Internet, one that has allowed the exponential growth of new services in the recent years. Attempts to introduce certain traffic management schemes by telecom operators seem to threaten the possibilities of future development of the Internet and have an adverse effect on freedom of speech. Different stakeholders, academics and policy makers debate how and to what extent such a principle should be preserved and whether specific regulation is needed.
The 7th International Internet Law & Politics Conference (IDP, Internet, Derecho y Política – Internet, Law and Politics), which will be held in Barcelona on the 11th and 12th of July, 2011, will focus on the current Net Neutrality debate, and its consequences for the development of the Internet, from the legal and political standpoints. The conference will cover as well other core issues in the fields of cyberlaw, e-government and e-democracy that represent important challenges for the future of the Net, including the so-called “right to be forgotten“; data protection; copyright; privacy; web governance and policies; the right to access public information, or democratic action on the web.
The six Internet Law & Politics conferences held to date have consolidated IDP Conference’s position as an annual meeting point for researchers, scholars and practitioners interested in the consequences of using information and communication technologies in the fields of law and politics. Leading academics and researchers have participated as keynote speakers on previous editions of the Conference, including Benjamin Barber, Lilian Edwards, Jane Ginsburg, James Grimmelmann, Ronald Leenes, Helen Margetts, Eben Moglen, Evgeny Morozov, John Palfrey, Yves Poullet, Stephano Rodotà, Alain Strowel and Jonathan Zittrain.
The conference is developed and organised by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia, UOC) Law and Political Sciences department under the auspices of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) – the institute that brings together the research activity carried out at the UOC which focuses, for the most part, on the study of the effects of technology on people, organisations and society in general.
Simultaeous translation from Spanish into English, and from English into Spanish, will be provided for all speeches, panels and tracks — except in case of parallel tracks, where one of the parallel tracks might be held only in English or Spanish, without translation.
Sponsored by
Organized by
Supported by
