WASHINGTON, D.C. - The future of online music, movies, games and other popular digital content will be the focus of a major conference in Washington on June 10. Entitled “Promoting Markets in Creativity: Copyright in the Internet Age,” the day-long event will feature some of the nation’s top experts on the critical legal, economic and overall policy aspects of the current content and copyright wars.

Co-sponsored by The Progress & Freedom Foundation and the Tech Center at the George Mason University School of Law, the conference will be held at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, from 8:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. There will be a luncheon with a keynote speaker to be announced soon. Those interested in attending the conference should contact Eileen Goulding at 202-289-8928 or egoulding@pff.org.

Major presenters, whose original work will be published as a book, include Richard Epstein, University of Chicago; Scott Kieff, Washington University; Edmund Kitch, University of Virginia and Stan Liebowitz, University of Texas. Also commenting will be Katherine Lawrence, University of Michigan Business School; Michael Einhorn, a law and economic consultant; Harold Furchgott-Roth, AEI; Solveig Singleton, CEI; Adam Mosoff, Clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; Greg Aharonian, Patent News; William F. Adkinson Jr., PFF; and Michael Abramowicz and Bruce Kobayashi, both of GMU School of Law.

“New ventures like Steve Jobs’ iTunes Music Store and formats like Movielink, Rhapsody and Pressplay are stimulating great interest,” says James V. DeLong, a Foundation senior fellow and director of its Center for the Study of Digital Property. “And new business models are in the making elsewhere. Our speakers will explore the legal, economic, technical and policy aspects of the changing digital marketplace.”

“Our conference addresses the copyright and related enforcement issues that are fundamental to the continued growth of the networked economy,” says Bradford Brown, chairman of the Tech Center. “As more content is being digitized and distributed via the Internet, business has to have confidence in the system.”

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the impact of the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1993. The Tech Center is a forward-looking research center and think tank that examines the relationship of the existing legal framework to the rapidly evolving information-based economy.