Singularity Law

I had the pleasure of speaking at an international conference in Amsterdam in early June. The event was the 20th anniversary of the International Federation of Computer Law Associations (IFCLA), which consists of virtually every computer law organization in the world (except for the U.S.-based ITech Law Associations — previously called the Computer Law Association).

The two-day conference brought together what I consider to be three generations of computer/cyber lawyers. The First Generation, marked by those who worked in the industry before the introduction of the personal computer in 1982, are now the “Old Men” (and a few Ladies) of the field. Many of them have or are preparing to retire. This group, to which I proudly belong, was nicely represented at the event. Several of us had the honor of speaking at the fi rst IFCLA meeting almost two decades ago, and had been invited back to speak at this historic meeting.

The Second Generation consists of those who began practice after the introduction of the PC, and who experienced the dot com boom and eventually bust. The newest group, the Third Generation, are those who began practice after the dot com bust (around 2001 or thereafter). All of us are interested in the latest, and generally continuing, issues of privacy, licensing, international transactions, etc. But the Third Generation attorneys generally have little interest in domain name disputes (those are so “yesterday”), but have a keen interest in the legal issues surrounding collaborative web sites like MySpace, Wikipedia, blogs, and massive multiplayer online games.

What I find interesting is how each generation seems to “rediscover” problems that prior generations had already solved. Many Second Generation lawyers thought that website development transactions and online licensing presented brand new legal issues, and spent plenty of time (and clients’ money) trying to “solve” these problems, when in fact, website development issues had all been thought out years earlier when First Generation attorneys were drafting software development agreements . And online licensing issues were only slight variations on the multitude of licensing transactions (software, databases) that had gone before.

That is not to say that there is “nothing new under the sun.” This field would be quite dull if everything was just a variation on what had come before. The best conferences are those where the organizers find those “cutting edge” issues that can educate everyone — and this was one of those conferences. There were lawyers from 15-20 different countries, of all three generations. The one thing they shared in common was their interest in and love of the field of computer/cyber law. It was a great time to renew old acquaintances and make a number of new ones. Two years from now, IFCLA will be meeting in Paris. Hope to see you there.