Law Commons^™

Defeating The Economic Theory Of Copyright: How The Natural Right To Seek Knowledge Is The Only Theory Able To Explain The Entirety Of Copyright’S Balance, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The practice of copyright was once a perfect balance, reflecting the intent of the Founders to create an environment where new works were constantly made available to the public for consumption and use. The author would create a work, a user would buy a copy and be free to use it. Neither party had any right to interfere with the other’s activities. All of that changed with newer technologies, exposing the flaws both in our laws and the applications of them.

Copyright laws, on their face, prohibit many normal uses of copyrighted works by end users, such as making mixed …

Hachette, Controlled Digital Lending, And The Consequences Of Divorcing Law From Context, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article will look at the recent Hachette decision against the Internet Archive, analyzing how the court’s reliance on past authorities with insufficient context distorted their meanings. It will focus only on the controlled digital lending (CDL) aspect, not discussing the other claims in the suit or exploring the specific implementation of CDL by the Internet Archive (IA). Since CDL programs can vary widely, IA is better situated than others to identify missing context related to the analysis of the unique components of their efforts. And other libraries engaging in CDL should be able to easily see where their programs …