Jennifer Granick: Disclosure and Intellectual Property Law: Case Studies

The simple decision by a researcher to tell what he or she has discovered about a software product or website can be very complicated both legally and ethically. The applicable legal rules are complicated, there isn't necessarily any precedent, and what rules there are may be in flux. In this presentation, I will use Cisco and ISS's lawsuit against Michael Lynn (from Black Hat 2005) and HID's cease and desist letter to IOActive (from Black Hat 2006) to discuss major intellectual property law doctrines that regulate security research and disclosure. I will give the audience some practical tips for avoiding claims of illegal activity. "Jennifer Stisa Granick joined Stanford Law School in January 2001, as Lecturer in Law and Executive Director of the Center for Internet and Society (CIS). She teaches, speaks and writes on the full spectrum of Internet law issues including computer crime and security, national security, constitutional rights, and electronic surveillance, areas in which her expertise is recognized nationally. Granick came to Stanford after almost a decade practicing criminal defense law in California. Her experience includes stints at the Office of the State Public Defender and at a number of criminal defense boutiques, before founding the Law Offices of Jennifer S. Granick, where she focused on hacker defense and other computer law representations at the trial and appellate level in state and federal court. At Stanford, she currently teaches the Cyberlaw Clinic, one of the nation's few law and technology litigation clinics. Granick continues to consult on computer crime cases and serves on the Board of Directors of the Honeynet Project, which collects data on computer intrusions for the purposes of developing defensive tools and practices. She was selected by Information Security magazine in 2003 as one of 20 "Women of Vision" in the computer security field. She earned her law degree from University of California, Hastings College of the Law and her undergraduate degree from the New College of the University of South Florida.