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Kurlan V. Cbs: Justice Carter’S Prescient Dissent— A Glimpse Into The Future Of Copyright Protection In The Entertainment Industry, Marc H. Greenberg

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A scholar of intellectual property law quickly learns that complacency, and the privilege of working in a largely static and unchanging body of law, is not a benefit available to those who labor in this endlessly fascinating but fast-paced and always changing field. The 1953 decision of the California Supreme Court in Kurlan v. CBS (hereinafter “Kurlan”), provides yet another example of this principle. Many of the assumptions found in the majority decision have long been abandoned or substantially revised. Justice Carter’s dissent, however, contains the seeds of those revisions, and is prescient in its understanding of the need to: …