Edward Felten, a computer-science professor at Princeton University's Computer Science, specializes in security issues and is at the front line of the debate about intellectual property and copyright in the Digital Age. In 2001, the recording industry threatened to sue Felten and seven other researchers under the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act for planning to release a paper outlining security flaws in copy-protection technology.

The researchers filed a lawsuit asking the court to rule on whether publishing the paper was legal, causing the industry to back off. Now, Felten actively tracks other attempts to regulate technology through his Freedom to Tinker blog. Felten spoke with BusinessWeek Department Editor Heather Green about the ongoing debates around intellectual property and copyright.

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