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Full-Text Articles in Law

Game Over For First Sale, Stephen J. Mcintyre Mar 2013

Game Over For First Sale, Stephen J. Mcintyre

Stephen J McIntyre

Video game companies have long considered secondhand game retailers a threat to their bottom lines. With the next generation of gaming consoles on the horizon, some companies are experimenting with technological tools to discourage and even prevent gamers from buying and selling used games. Most significantly, a recent patent application describes a system for suppressing secondhand sales by permanently identifying game discs with a single video game console. This technology flies in the face of copyright law’s “first sale” doctrine, which gives lawful purchasers the right to sell, lease, and lend DVDs, CDs, and other media. This Article answers a …


Courtroom Drama With Chinese Characteristics: A Comparative Approach To Legal Process In Chinese Cinema, Stephen J. Mcintyre Jan 2013

Courtroom Drama With Chinese Characteristics: A Comparative Approach To Legal Process In Chinese Cinema, Stephen J. Mcintyre

Stephen J McIntyre

While previous “law and film” scholarship has concentrated mainly on Hollywood films, this Essay examines legal themes in Chinese cinema. It argues that Chinese films do not simply mimic Western conventions when portraying the courtroom, but draw upon a centuries-old, indigenous tradition of “court case” (gong’an) melodrama. Like Hollywood cinema, gong’an drama seizes upon the dramatic and narrative potential of legal trials. Yet whereas Hollywood trial films turn viewers into jurors, pushing them back and forth between the competing stories that emerge from the adversarial process, gong’an drama eschews any recognition of opposing narratives, centering instead on the punishment of …


Private Rights And Public Wrongs: Fair Use As A Remedy For Private Censorship, Stephen J. Mcintyre Jan 2012

Private Rights And Public Wrongs: Fair Use As A Remedy For Private Censorship, Stephen J. Mcintyre

Stephen J McIntyre

Copyright law seeks to promote the public welfare by incentivizing the creation and publication of art, literature, and other original works of authorship. The law bestows exclusive economic rights in expression, which allow copyright holders to exploit the commercial value of their creations in the marketplace. This affords a high degree of control over when and how others use copyright-protected works. These rights, however, are not absolute. The 'fair use' doctrine has traditionally permitted unauthorized and uncompensated uses of copyrighted material for socially beneficial purposes. Under current jurisprudence, the fair use analysis is dominated by concerns about market harm. The …


The Yang Obeys, But The Yin Ignores: Copyright Law And Speech Suppression In The People's Republic Of China, Stephen J. Mcintyre Jan 2011

The Yang Obeys, But The Yin Ignores: Copyright Law And Speech Suppression In The People's Republic Of China, Stephen J. Mcintyre

Stephen J McIntyre

Copyright law can serve to either promote or restrict free speech: while copyright preserves economic incentives to create and publish new expression, it also fences off expression from public use. For this reason, the effect of copyright law on speech in a given country depends on the particular manner in which it is understood, legislated, and enforced. This Article argues that copyright law in the People’s Republic of China serves as a tool for speech suppression and censorship. Whereas China has engaged in official censorship for thousands of years, there has historically been little appreciation for proprietary rights in art …


Trying To Agree On Three Articles Of Law: The Idea/Expression Dichotomy In Chinese Copyright Law, Stephen J. Mcintyre Jan 2010

Trying To Agree On Three Articles Of Law: The Idea/Expression Dichotomy In Chinese Copyright Law, Stephen J. Mcintyre

Stephen J McIntyre

The idea/expression dichotomy, which holds that copyright protection extends only to expression, but not to ideas, is internationally recognized as a basic principle of copyright law. Yet despite the doctrine’s fundamental importance, China has not codified it in its general copyright statute. This legislative failure threatens to undermine the public-oriented goals of copyright and presents a dilemma to Chinese courts, which are not authorized to make or develop doctrine through recognition of judicial precedent. This Article provides the first in-depth study in English of the idea/expression dichotomy in Chinese copyright law. It demonstrates that, even though the doctrine is not …