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Full-Text Articles in Law
Retelling Copyright: The Contributions Of The Restatement Of Copyright Law, Jessica Silbey, Jeanne Fromer
Retelling Copyright: The Contributions Of The Restatement Of Copyright Law, Jessica Silbey, Jeanne Fromer
Faculty Scholarship
This Article was written for a special issue on the American Law Institute’s (ALI) Restatement of Copyright Law.
Since the American Law Institute (ALI) launched in the early twentieth century, its mission has been “the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs ... [and] to secure the better administration of justice.” A principal way it has pursued that mission has been through its Restatements of Law project. By their nature, Restatements of Law reflect tensions between what it means to “restate” and reform the law. As the ALI has grown and the legal profession …
We're All Pirates Now: Making Do In A Precarious Ip Ecosystem, Jessica Silbey
We're All Pirates Now: Making Do In A Precarious Ip Ecosystem, Jessica Silbey
Faculty Scholarship
Fifteen years after the Piracy Paradox explained how most anti-copying protection is unnecessary for a thriving fashion industry, we face another piracy paradox: with broader and stronger IP laws and a digital economy in which IP enforcement is more draconian than ever, what explains the ubiquity of everyday copying, sharing, re-making and re-mixing practices that are the life blood of the internet's expressive and innovative ecosystems? Drawing on empirical data from a decade of research, this short essay provides two examples of this "new piracy paradox": a legal regime that ostensibly punishes piracy in a culture in which it is …
The Use Of Technical Experts In Software Copyright Cases: Rectifying The Ninth Circuit’S “Nutty” Rule, Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Peter S. Menell
The Use Of Technical Experts In Software Copyright Cases: Rectifying The Ninth Circuit’S “Nutty” Rule, Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Peter S. Menell
Faculty Scholarship
Courts have long been skeptical about the use of expert witnesses in copyright cases. More than four decades ago, and before Congress extended copyright law to protect computer software, the Ninth Circuit in Krofft Television Productions, Inc. v. McDonald’s Corp. ruled that expert testimony was inadmissible to determine whether Mayor McCheese and the merry band of McDonald’s characters infringed copyright protection for Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo and the other imaginative H.R. Pufnstuf costumed characters. Since the emergence of software copyright infringement cases in the 1980s, substantially all software copyright cases have permitted expert witnesses to aid juries in understanding software code. …
Conundra Of The Berne Convention Concept Of The Country Of Origin, Jane C. Ginsburg
Conundra Of The Berne Convention Concept Of The Country Of Origin, Jane C. Ginsburg
Faculty Scholarship
This essay explores one of the most important, but occasionally intractable, issues under the Berne Convention, the concept of Country of Origin. Article 5(4) of that treaty defines a work’s country of origin, but leaves out several situations, leaving those who interpret and apply the treaty without guidance in ascertaining the country of origin. I will call those situations the “Conundra of the country of origin,” and will explore two of them here. First, what is the country of origin of an unpublished work whose authors are nationals of different countries? Second, what is the country of origin of a …