Paul Rapp Attorney

Lorre Smith Librarian

James Peltz Publisher

The panel discussion will address issues of vital importance in an age when information has become the world's number one commodity. Topics will include the legal nature and history of intellectual property rights; issues concerning text, images, sounds and ideas; the Internet, weblogs and other new media; the impact of laws on academic professionals, artists and the media industry; and the conflict between property rights and the freedoms of inquiry and expression.

Paul Rapp is an attorney specializing in copyright, trademark, Internet, and art and entertainment matters. He serves as adjunct professor of copyright and art & entertainment law at Albany Law School. A graphic artist himself, Rapp pens regular columns for journals on art and folklore, and contributes regular reviews of music and opera to Metroland. He is a regular guest on "The Copyright Forum," on Public Radio station WAMC's live call-in show, "VoxPop." Paul Rapp.com Top of Page

Lorre Smith is Librarian for Digital Library Initiatives at the University at Albany, and author of weblogs on the issue of copyright, including "Copyright Resources and Current Issues," and "That Copyright Blog: A Blog About Copyright, the Public Domain, Open Access and Related Fields of Discourse." She is active in the Open Access Movement--the movement to publish scholarly literature on the Internet and make it available to readers free of charge and licensing restrictions. Copywright Presentation, 3/16/07 Digital Library Initiatives

James Peltz is the Interim Director at SUNY Press, one of the largest public university presses in the world. He served previously as editor, editor-in-chief, and associate director. Over the course of the last ten years, he has dealt frequently with issues of intellectual property, copyright and fair use. He also specializes in the acquisition of books in the fields of literary and cultural studies. SUNY Press