Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 7 of 7
Full-Text Articles in Law
A Model Copyright Exemption To Serve The Visually Impaired, Patrick Hely
A Model Copyright Exemption To Serve The Visually Impaired, Patrick Hely
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
Copyright law presents visually impaired persons with serious barriers to access of the written word. A recent international effort seeks to remove these barriers to access, in limited instances, by allowing the creation of accessible formats of copyrighted works. While bodies like the World Blind Union--through several South American states--have presented draft treaties to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to date the interested parties have not found a mutually agreeable solution. This Note surveys international intellectual property law as it relates to the problem, draws a comparison to the humanitarian concerns entangled with international patent law, and tracks the …
Copyright, Derivative Works, And The Economics Of Complements, Glynn S. Lunney, Jr.
Copyright, Derivative Works, And The Economics Of Complements, Glynn S. Lunney, Jr.
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
From an economic perspective, copyright is irrational. In defining the scope of a copyright owner's exclusive rights, it treats situations that have similar economic consequences differently, as infringement in one case and not in the other, and situations that have radically different economic consequences similarly. This essay explores such area in which copyright exhibits economic irrationality: Copyright's treatment of complements. Where a lower price on a substitute reduces demand for the original, a lower price on a complement increases it. So defined, copyright addresses whether a copyright owner will control three different types of complements: (i) complementary products, such as …
Libraries, Digital Content, And Copyright, Laura N. Gasaway
Libraries, Digital Content, And Copyright, Laura N. Gasaway
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
Libraries use, acquire, create and host generate digital content. They digitize their existing collections of works such as letters, diaries and manuscripts and post them on library websites. Increasingly, libraries are utilizing digital technology to preserve library works which may or may not be made available to the public. Libraries also create, manage and host user generated content such as posts on discussion boards, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, social bookmarking, tagging, and social networks. Libraries use user generated content for internal library purposes, such as displays and events and for teaching. Further, libraries often are asked to assist users who …
Beyond Creativity: Copyright As Knowledge Law, Michael J. Madison
Beyond Creativity: Copyright As Knowledge Law, Michael J. Madison
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
The Supreme Court's copyright jurisprudence of the last 100 years has embraced the creativity trope. Spurred in part by themes associated with the story of "romantic authorship" in the 19th and 20th centuries, copyright critiques likewise ask, "Who is creative?" "How should creativity be protected (or not) and encouraged (or not)?" and "Why protect creativity?" Policy debates and scholarship in recent years have focused on the concept of creativity in framing copyright disputes, transactions, and institutions, reinforcing the notion that these are the central copyright questions. I suggest that this focus on the creativity trope is unhelpful. I argue that …
When Users Are Authors: Authorship In The Age Of Digital Media, Alina Ng
When Users Are Authors: Authorship In The Age Of Digital Media, Alina Ng
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
This Article explores what authorship and creative production mean in the digital age. Notions of the author as the creator of the work have, since the passage of the Statute of Anne in 1710, provided a point of reference for recognizing ownership rights in literary and artistic works in conventional copyright jurisprudence. The role of the author as both the creator and the producer of a work has been seen as distinct and separate from that of the publisher and user. Copyright laws and customary norms protect the author's rights in his creation, and provide the incentive to create. They …
I Put You There: User-Generated Content And Anticircumvention, Rebecca Tushnet
I Put You There: User-Generated Content And Anticircumvention, Rebecca Tushnet
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
This Article discusses recent rulemaking proceedings before the Copyright Office concerning the anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). During these proceedings, non-institutionally affiliated artists organized to assert their interests in making fair use of existing works, adding new voices to the debate. A proposed exemption for noncommercial remix video is justified to address the in terrorem effect of anticircumvention law on fair use. Without an exemption, fair users are subjected to a digital literacy test combined with a digital poll tax, and this regime suppresses fair use. The experience of artists (vidders) confronting the law illustrates both …
Transformative Use And Cognizable Harm, Thomas F. Cotter
Transformative Use And Cognizable Harm, Thomas F. Cotter
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
In recent years, the question of whether the unauthorized use of a copyrighted work is "transformative" has become a dominant consideration in determining whether the use is fair or unfair. As critics have pointed out, however, this emphasis on transformative use is both underinclusive and indeterminate of the range of uses that fall within the scope of the fair use privilege. Worse yet, efforts to define or apply the concept of transformative use, or to distinguish fair transformative uses from transformative uses that infringe the copyright owner's exclusive right to prepare derivative works, often serve only to illuminate the concept's …