It hardly seems like 8 years since I last spoke with Professor Junger. Lately, I’ve been thinking about him.
He was a true mentor. There were others who pushed me forward toward freedom, but Professor Junger was always available and we had many private conversations in addition to our activity on the Berkman Center list. He was not arrogant. He was not unavailable or “too busy”. He was not narcissistic. There was no ego that I experienced. Perhaps, he was so wonderful to me because at the time I was a computer science major interested in law. As a female computer science major, I felt alone a lot. I really was in so many ways. That didn’t matter. What mattered was freedom and justice!
His last blog post was October 15, 2006. By November, he had passed away.
I don’t know why I’ve been thinking about him recently.
For so many years after his passing, I floated around, drifting here and there, barely working on anything really relevant. There was the book – A Decade of the DMCA – only because it was already in progress prior to 2005.
Professor Junger was an amazing individual. His insight into code and functional speech were in depth. We had many amazing exchanges relating to copyright, law, computing and how to pronounce his last name. In a way, I clung to him as a support. He was one expert in the area of code and speech. He was one of the few at the time who was highly technical, yet had an understanding of the law. He was, as Rick Moen, might refer to as a “double threat” – computing and law.
April 4, 2000. I get chills just writing down that date. This was the day the decision came in that source code was protected under the first Amendment, we congratulated him. He was gracious. I knew it was a special moment but looking back, I didn’t realize the impact this decision would really have down the line. I speculated. I am so glad to have been a part of that time in computing law. I am so glad to have known Prof. Junger.
I suppose my friend, adrenaline, is right. When people pass away, others do miss them dearly. I really miss Professor Junger now. I only hope that what I learned from him – his insight, his patience, his grace will live on.
He was a true gentleman.
I am looking for the qart.pdf – I’m sure it’s on a hard drive somewhere but if someone has a handy copy… please let me know. Often, I wonder how our conversations would go about particular cases. I don’t have him to discuss topics with but now there are so many people well versed with law and computing/technology. Still, there will never be anyone like Professor Junger!
Image- Professor Junger
http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/d30-28/peter-junger.jpg
Professor Junger’s blog
http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/
References
http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001053100420NWCY
http://archive09.linux.com/feed/12496
Share in the good works:
https://w2.eff.org/campaigns/stickers/#html