Inaugural Authors@Google EU Lunchtime Talk: Net Neutrality by Chris Marsden

The Authors@Google programme brings authors to Google to give informal talks - open to all comers - based around their recently published books. Participants are treated to readings of everything from serious literature to sharp political analysis, pioneering science fiction and moving personal memoirs, and whenever possible, we share these remarkable discussions with the world via our YouTube channel.

We'll be holding our first Authors@Google EU talk over lunch on Thursday 18 March, and we hope you'll be able to come along (register here). Kicking off the series, Chris Marsden, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Essex, will present the key arguments from his new book: Net Neutrality: Towards a Co-Regulatory Solution (2010, Bloomsbury Academic. Visit their site for a Creative Commons download.)

Dr Herbert Ungerer, Former Deputy Director General of the European Commission's DG Competition, describes Marsden's book as "fascinating to read, thoroughly researched and testing the paths to the future of the Internet."

During his Authors@Google talk, Marsden will argue for a 'middle way' on net neutrality, a term that is used to cover a wide spectrum of questions about the future of the internet, and that is the focus of regulatory scrutiny and legislation in Canada, the US and Europe.

Marsden will ask whether we should allow 'Lex Monopolium' to become entrenched at the expense of an open Internet, or whether innovation and investment can be encouraged by relatively light tough co-regulatory principles, backed up by a knowledgeable regulator with powers to intervene whenever economic or social concerns dictate. At the end of the talk, there will of course be plenty of opportunity for questions!

When: Thursday March 18, 12:15 - 13:30 hours CET (sandwich lunch provided).

Where: Google, Chaussée D'Etterbeek 180 / Steenweg op Etterbeek 180, 2nd floor, 1040 Brussels

Registration: please register here

Chris Marsden biography:

Christopher T. Marsden is Senior Lecturer in Law, having joined the University of Essex in 2007. He was senior analyst at RAND Europe (2005-07), research manager at Oxford's Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (2004-05), Regulatory Director at MCI WorldCom UK Ltd (2001-02), and General Counsel of Shortmedia (2000-01). He has LLB 1989 and LLM 1994 from the London of School of Economics.

He is Media Board Member at the Society for Computers and Law; Editorial Board Member of the journal 'Info' since 2003; and was Founding co-editor of the International Journal of Communications Law and Policy.

He has also been a Research Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School, an Industrial Policy Fellow at Cambridge University's Computer Lab, and a visiting fellow at law and business schools in the UK, US, Japan and Australia. He blogs at chrismarsden.blogspot.com and can be found on Twitter: ChrisTMarsden

Posted by Alain Van Gaever, Telecom Policy Manager