This press release is copyrighted by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). Its use is granted only to journalists and news media.
The lawsuit against Napster Inc. is being closely watched, for its outcome may affect the development of peer-to-peer technology in years to come. But Napster-watchers don't often notice one key player behind the scenes: A. J. Nichols.
Electrical engineer Nichols was appointed this past spring as a "neutral expert." Since his appointment, he has declined to give interviews to any media--except IEEE Spectrum. In this exclusive profile in the October issue, Spectrum looks at Nichols' career, how he moved from traditional engineering work into becoming a respected expert witness, and his other noteworthy cases as a neutral expert, including the Sun/Microsoft Java case and the Cadence/Avant! trade secrets case.
In his role as a neutral expert, Nichols acts as a technical consultant to the judge, explaining technology as needed and performing requested tasks (for example, he was asked to examine the blocking technology to determine whether the Napster team was indeed doing everything it could to block works identified as copyrighted). And he may turn out to be pivotal in the case.
Contact: Tekla S. Perry, 650 328 7570, [email protected].
For faxed copies of the complete article ["Operating in Neutral" by Tekla S. Perry, Senior Editor, IEEE Spectrum, October, pp. 52-57] or to arrange an interview, contact: Desiree Noel, 212 419 7555, [email protected].
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