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Articles 1 - 21 of 21
Full-Text Articles in Law
Fetishizing Copies, Jessica Litman
Fetishizing Copies, Jessica Litman
Book Chapters
Our copyright laws encourage authors to create new works and communicate them to the public, because we hope that people will read the books, listen to the music, see the art, watch the films, run the software, and build and inhabit the buildings. That is the way that copyright promotes the Progress of Science. Recently, that not-very-controversial principle has collided with copyright owners’ conviction that they should be able to control, or at least collect royalties from, all uses of their works. A particularly ill-considered manifestation of this conviction is what I have decided to call copy-fetish. This is the …
Silent Similarity, Jessica D. Litman
Silent Similarity, Jessica D. Litman
Articles
From 1909 to 1930, U.S. courts grappled with claims by authors of prose works claiming that works in a new art form—silent movies—had infringed their copyrights. These cases laid the groundwork for much of modern copyright law, from their broad expansion of the reproduction right, to their puzzled grappling with the question how to compare works in dissimilar media, to their confusion over what sort of evidence should be relevant to show copyrightability, copying and infringement. Some of those cases—in particular, Nichols v. Universal Pictures—are canonical today. They are not, however, well-understood. In particular, the problem at the heart of …
Campbell At 21/Sony At 31, Jessica D. Litman
Campbell At 21/Sony At 31, Jessica D. Litman
Articles
When copyright lawyers gather to discuss fair use, the most common refrain is its alarming expansion. Their distress about fair use’s enlarged footprint seems completely untethered from any appreciation of the remarkable increase in exclusive copyright rights. In the nearly forty years since Congress enacted the 1976 copyright act, the rights of copyright owners have expanded markedly. Copyright owners’ demands for further expansion continue unabated. Meanwhile, they raise strident objections to proposals to add new privileges and exceptions to the statute to shelter non-infringing uses that might be implicated by their expanded rights. Copyright owners have used the resulting uncertainty …
Interpreting Biological Similarity: Ongoing Challenges For Diverse Decision Makers, Sarah M. Cork
Interpreting Biological Similarity: Ongoing Challenges For Diverse Decision Makers, Sarah M. Cork
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
Similarity is an elusive and complicated concept facing comparisons of biological molecules, as even minute changes to a molecule's structure can dramatically affect its function in the body. Yet the flood of biologic drugs on the market will increasingly force these similarity comparisons. These concerns are particularly relevant to two groups of drugs: families of biologic drugs that closely resemble each other in structure and function, here termed "similar-impact biologics," and the biosimilars, which are intended to closely approximate generic forms of biologic drugs. In bringing biologic drugs to the market, manufacturers are likely to face dual obstacles: FDA approval …
Is A Substantive, Non-Positivist United States Environmental Law Possible?, Dan Tarlock
Is A Substantive, Non-Positivist United States Environmental Law Possible?, Dan Tarlock
Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law
U.S. environmental law is almost exclusively positive and procedural. The foundation is the pollution control and biodiversity conservation statutes enacted primarily between 1969–1980 and judicial decisions interpreting them. This law has created detailed processes for making decisions but has produced few substantive constraints on private and public decisions which impair the environment. Several substantive candidates have been proposed, such as the common law, a constitutional right to a healthy environment, the public trust, and the extension of rights to fauna and flora. However, these candidates have not produced the hoped for substantive law. Many argue that a substantive U.S. environmental …
Gina's Genotypes, David H. Kaye
Gina's Genotypes, David H. Kaye
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
In August 2009, the Board of Trustees of the University of Akron added to the university's employment policy the following proviso: "any applicant may be asked to submit fingerprints or DNA sample for purpose of a federal criminal background check." Although the federal government does not do background checks with DNA, the policy is significant because it highlights a largely unexplored feature of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 ("GINA"). Hailed by the late Senator Edward Kennedy as "the first civil rights bill of the new century of life sciences," GINA generally prohibits employers from asking for "genetic information." …
The Intent Element Of Inducement To Infringe Under Patent Law: Reflections On Grokster, Lynda J. Oswald
The Intent Element Of Inducement To Infringe Under Patent Law: Reflections On Grokster, Lynda J. Oswald
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
In June, 2005, the United States Supreme Court set forth an "inducement" rule in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. that imposes secondary liability on "one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement." The Court emphasized the limitations of the liability standard it was setting forth, stating that the target was only "purposeful, culpable expression and conduct, and thus does nothing to compromise legitimate commerce or discourage innovation having a lawful promise." Yet, the liability standard set forth in Grokster …
War And Peace: The 34th Annual Donald C. Brace Lecture, Jessica D. Litman
War And Peace: The 34th Annual Donald C. Brace Lecture, Jessica D. Litman
Other Publications
I'd like to thank the Copyright Society and the Brace committee for inviting me to speak to you this evening. I am honored that you invited me to give this lecture. I want to talk a little bit about war - copyright war - and then I want to talk a little bit about peace. It's become conventional that we're in the middle of a copyright war.' I tried to track down who started calling it that, and what I can tell you is that about ten years ago, about the time that copyright lawyers everywhere were arguing about the …
Fair's Fair: An Argument For Mandatory Disclosure Of Technological Protection Measures, Robert C. Denicola
Fair's Fair: An Argument For Mandatory Disclosure Of Technological Protection Measures, Robert C. Denicola
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
Section 1201(a)(1) of the Copyright Act prohibits the act of "circumvent[ing] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work," including, for example, by-passing password protection or encryption intended to restrict access to paying customers. Section 1201(a)(2) prohibits the manufacture or sale of "any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof" primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing access controls on copyrighted works. Additionally, § 1202(b) prohibits the manufacture or sale of products, devices or services primarily designed to circumvent "a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner"--for example, a technological measure intended to …
Quibbles'n Bits: Making A Digital First Sale Doctrine Feasible, Victor F. Calaba
Quibbles'n Bits: Making A Digital First Sale Doctrine Feasible, Victor F. Calaba
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
Whereas the first sale doctrine historically permitted the transfer and resale of copyrighted works, license agreements used by software companies and the DMCA's strict rules prohibiting tampering with access control devices frustrate exercise of the first sale doctrine with respect to many forms of digital works[...] This article explores the first sale doctrine as it pertains to digital works and proposes ways to make a digital first sale doctrine feasible. Part II describes the first sale doctrine as it has traditionally been applied to non-digital works. Part III discusses modern technology's impact on the distribution and use of copyrighted material. …
Taking A Bite Out Of Circumvention: Analyzing 17 U.S.C. 1201 As A Criminal Law, Jason M. Schulz
Taking A Bite Out Of Circumvention: Analyzing 17 U.S.C. 1201 As A Criminal Law, Jason M. Schulz
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
...information content providers who depend heavily on copyright law are growing increasingly wary of advances in digital technology that allow manipulation of their content and potentially diminish the effectiveness of their copyright protection. Technology firms, on the other hand, are looking more and more at developing products which provide low-cost, high quality access to content without restriction. Thus, as technologists work feverishly to find new ways to free up information, content providers are fighting just as hard to constrain access in order to prevent market-killing duplication and distribution of their works. These two codependent yet clashing interest groups recently met …
The Obsolescence Of Wall Street: A Contextual Approach To The Evolving Structure Of Federal Securities Regulation, Joel Seligman
The Obsolescence Of Wall Street: A Contextual Approach To The Evolving Structure Of Federal Securities Regulation, Joel Seligman
Michigan Law Review
As a matter of analytical style, this article illustrates a contextualist approach. For a considerable period of time, the dominant analytical style in corporate and securities .law has been a variant of economic, or law and economics, analysis. The virtue of this type of analysis is that it focuses on what its authors deem to be crucial variables and reaches conclusions derived from the core of a specific legal problem. The defect of this type of analysis is that so much is assumed or often assumed away.
Goldstein's Curse, James J. White
Goldstein's Curse, James J. White
Articles
ON April 16, 1980, a man using the name Marvin Goldstein opened a bank account at a Baltimore branch of Union Trust Company. He deposited $15,000 in cash. He told the branch manager that he planned to establish a Baltimore office of his father's New York business, "Goldstein's Precious Metals and Stones." Goldstein identified himself with a New Jersey driver's license and gave a bank reference from New York. On May 6, Goldstein deposited a check for $880,000 at another Union Trust branch near the branch where he had opened the account. Words on this check indicated that it was …
Copyright Legislation And Technological Change, Jessica D. Litman
Copyright Legislation And Technological Change, Jessica D. Litman
Articles
Throughout its history, copyright law has had difficulty accommodating technological change. Although the substance of copyright legislation in this century has evolved from meetings among industry representatives whose avowed purpose was to draft legislation that provided for the future,6 the resulting statutes have done so poorly. The language of copyright statutes has been phrased in fact-specific language that has grown obsolete as new modes and mediums of copyrightable expression have developed. Whatever copyright statute has been on the books has been routinely, and justifiably, criticized as outmoded.7 In this Article, I suggest that the nature of the legislative process we …
Computer Technology And Copyright- A Review Of Legislative And Judicial Developments In Japan, Teruo Doi
Computer Technology And Copyright- A Review Of Legislative And Judicial Developments In Japan, Teruo Doi
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article discusses and evaluates the legislative and judicial developments after the enactment of the Copyright Law which apply to computer programs and other computer-related technology. It examines: (1) the 1985 amendment to the Copyright Law enacted to protect computer programs, including the history of discussions by government agencies and judicial determinations that led to the amendment; (2) the 1986 Program Registration Law which supplements the existing provisions of the Copyright Law concerning registration; (3) the protection of databases under a new amendment to the Copyright Law; (4) the regulation of software rental business by the establishment of a public …
The Limitations On The Protection Of Program Works Under Japanese Copyright Law, Dennis S. Karjala
The Limitations On The Protection Of Program Works Under Japanese Copyright Law, Dennis S. Karjala
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article examines these problems in the light of the program language, rule, and algorithm limitations on program protection under the Japanese Copyright Act. Section II sets forth the relevant statutory language, and Sections III and IV apply the program language and rule limitations to operating systems software and microcode. Section V considers the scope of protection under Japanese law in applications programs under the algorithm limitation on program protection. Finally, Section VI takes up the problem of whether copying for purposes of reverse engineering can be justified under the Act.
Recognition Of Proprietary Interests In Software In Korea: Programming For Comprehensive Reform, Byoung Kook Min, Gary Sullivan
Recognition Of Proprietary Interests In Software In Korea: Programming For Comprehensive Reform, Byoung Kook Min, Gary Sullivan
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article will review the legal environment and major issues concerning software protection in the Republic of Korea, and will describe the existing applicable laws and regulations and the trend towards software protection in the region. In addition, the implications of Korea's pending accession to the Universal Copyright Convention will be analyzed. Finally, this article will conclude with a discussion of the current reforms and their implications for Korean international trade law.
Some Problems Of Legal Regulation Of The Use Of Computer Technology In Czechoslovakia, Viktor Knapp
Some Problems Of Legal Regulation Of The Use Of Computer Technology In Czechoslovakia, Viktor Knapp
Michigan Journal of International Law
Technical progress is one of the most important elements of social development which necessarily causes change in the law. In the past few decades computer technology has become very important. As a component of technical progress, computer technology has given rise to new social relations which require legal regulation. Such regulation, however, is not provided adequately by existing legal rules in the contemporary Czechoslovak legal system.
Addressing The Reprographic Revolution: Compensating Copyright Owners For Mass Infringement, Rosalind S. Kurz
Addressing The Reprographic Revolution: Compensating Copyright Owners For Mass Infringement, Rosalind S. Kurz
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article addresses the unique problems created by the reprographic revolution. Part I discusses recent legislative attempts to relieve the strain placed on existing copyright law by developing reprographic technologies. Using the recent Betamax case as an example, part II criticizes judicial efforts to apply traditional copyright doctrine to issues involving reprographic technologies. Finally, part III proposes a framework for devising, an enforcement scheme to protect copyright holders' rights without denying the public the many benefits offered by reprographic technologies. The Article outlines an approach tailored to meet the special problems associated with each of the three basic reprographic technologies: …
Efts: Consumer Protection Under The Ucc, Susan E. Jinnett
Efts: Consumer Protection Under The Ucc, Susan E. Jinnett
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In view of the economic significance of the payments system, the laws governing it must be equitable and comprehensive. The development of the commercial law applicable to EFTS's, however, currently lags behind the growth of these systems. Threats to the integrity of EFTS's stem from lost, stolen, or forged access cards, illegal taps into communication lines, physical impairment of the equipment, or improper programming. The legal rights and liabilities of consumers where the integrity of an EFTS has been breached remains unclear, in part because the status of EFTS's under current law is uncertain. The rights of the parties involved …
The Problem Of Communications In Meeting The Information Requirements Of The Courts, Layman Allen
The Problem Of Communications In Meeting The Information Requirements Of The Courts, Layman Allen
Book Chapters
My remarks are addressed to one aspect of the general problem of communication involved in meeting the information requirements of the courts. It transcends merely the court; however, it is a problem throughout the legal decision-making system. The efficiency of t:ourts in processing information is just one part of a larger picture of effective communication within the legal system. Phrased broadly, the question involves discerning the optimum man-machine mix in the processing of information. Nobody can reasonably quarrel with the goal of taking the fullest possible advantage of the benefits of emerging technology, as long as objectives of greater importance …