Law Commons^™

Fair Use Infrastructure For Rights Management Systems, Dan L. Burk, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this paper, we consider whether rights management systems can be supported by legal and institutional infrastructures that enable appropriate public access to the works secured by these technologies. We focus primarily on the design challenges posed by the fair use doctrine, which historically has played a central role in preserving such access. Throughout the paper, however, we also use the term "fair use" to refer more generally to the variety of limiting doctrines within copyright law that serve this goal. We begin in Part II by reviewing the contours of the fair use doctrine and the legal and policy …