Law Commons^™

Minecraft As Web 2.0: Amateur Creativity In Digital Games, Greg Lastowka

Greg Lastowka

This book chapter considers how the digital game Minecraft has both enabled and benefited from various Web 2.0 practices. I begin with an explanation of the concept of Web 2.0 and then consider how that concept applies to the space of digital games.

Copyright Exhaustion And The Personal Use Dilemma, Aaron K. Perzanowski, Jason M. Schultz

Aaron K. Perzanowski

Copyright law struggles to provide a coherent framework for analyzing personal uses. Although there is widespread agreement that at least some such uses are non-infringing, the doctrinal basis for that conclusion remains unclear. In particular, the prevailing explanations of fair use and implied license are both flawed in important respects. This Article proposes a new explanation for the favored status of certain personal uses. Drawing on the principle of copyright exhaustion - the notion that once the copyright holder parts with a particular copy of a work, its power to control the use and disposition of that copy is constrained …

Drm At The Intersection Of Copyright Law And Technology : A Case Study For Regulation, Severine Dusollier

Severine Dusollier

Digital Rights Management, that have been deployed to enforce copyright, present an interesting case study for regulation. DRM, as a technology, has significant effects on copyright regulation. When applied to limiting access or controlling the use of some works, and reinforced by anti-circumvention provisions, a DRM system acts as a technical norm regulating the very use of a copyrighted work, as copyright regulation does. But the normative effect of DRM technologies is rather different in terms of content and in terms of nature. Mere access to and use of works are now under control, whereas copyright is traditionally limited to …

Marca Corporal, Derecho De Propiedad Intelectual (Derecho De Tatuajes), Rodolfo C. Rivas Rea Esq., Marco A. Vargas Esq.

Rodolfo C. Rivas

The authors go back to the origins of tattoos and trace its way into mainstream pop culture. In doing so, they analyze the legal implications of tattoos relating to IP through various brief case studies.////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Los autores se remontan a los orígenes de los tatuajes y trazan su camino dentro de la cultura pop. Paralelamente, analizan las implicaciones jurídicas de los tatuajes a través de diversos casos.

Readers' Copyright, Jessica Litman

Jessica Litman

This essay is part of a project intended to help reclaim copyright for readers, listeners, and viewers. A system of copyright protection makes little sense unless it is designed to encourage the use and enjoyment of the works it induces authors to create and publishers to disseminate. I argue that a clear-eyed examination of copyright's history reveals that solicitude for readers and members of the audience is, in fact, deeply encoded in copyright's DNA. Recently, readers' interests have faded in apparent importance in the copyright scheme in ways that have unbalanced the copyright system, and undermined public support for copyright …

El "Product Placement" En El Cine, Rodolfo C. Rivas Rea Esq., Marco A. Vargas Iñiguez Esq.

Rodolfo C. Rivas

The authors discuss briefly the history of product placement in film citing several examples. Then, they analyze the current state of regulation and look forward at what lies ahead, as product placement has become ingrained in the entertainment industry.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Los autores analizan de una forma breve la historia del emplazamiento de productos o product placement en el cine, utilizando varios ejemplos. Después se adentran en el estado actual de la regulación y miran hacia el futuro de la industria.

The Changing Nature Of Books And The Uneasy Case For Copyright, Niva Elkin-Koren

Niva Elkin-Koren

Digital technology penetrated the publishing industry decades ago, but it was only in the past two years, that the digital revolution finally reached the book industry, as eBooks became a viable alternative to printed books.

eBooks are not simply a fancy package for buying and selling books. They are transforming print culture. They are changing the nature of books as we know them, giving rise to new social practices of writing and reading. eBooks and digital libraries are also transforming the publishing and bookselling industries, enabling new methods of production and distribution, shaking the boundaries between the traditional players, and …

Digital Exhaustion, Aaron K. Perzanowski, Jason M. Schultz

Aaron K. Perzanowski

As digital networks emerge as the dominant means of distributing copyrighted works, the first sale doctrine is increasingly marginalized. The limitations first sale places on the exclusive right of distribution are of little importance when the alienation and use of copies entails their reproduction. This fact of the modern copyright marketplace has led to calls for statutory clarification of digital first sale rights. Acknowledging the obstacles to legislative intervention, this Article argues that courts are equipped today to limit copyright exclusivity in order to enable copy owners to make traditionally lawful uses of their copies, including resale through secondary markets. …

(Re)Introducing Formalities In Copyright : Towards More Open Content?, Severine Dusollier

Severine Dusollier

Many voices have been recently heard in favor of the reintroduction of formalities in copyright law, in order to counteract the rapid expansion of copyright protection and the ensuing diminishing of the public domain. Formalities have been considered as a way to limit the automatic granting of copyright, to shorten its duration or to make its enforcement less easy. This paper examines the relevance of a possible reintroduction of formalities for the enhancement and safeguarding of the public domain. It first considers the formalities the introduction of which (or reintroduction in some countries) has been proposed, under two lenses: their …

Country Of Origin And Internet Publication: Applying The Berne Convention In The Digital Age, Sampsung Xiaoxiang Shi, Brian Fitzgerald, Cheryl Foong, Kylie Pappalardo

Cheryl Foong

In this article, we argue that even if a work first published online can be considered to be simultaneously published all over the world it does not follow that any country can assert itself as the “country of origin” of the work for the purpose of imposing domestic copyright formalities. More specifically, we argue that the meaning of “United States work” under the U.S. Copyright Act should be interpreted in line with the presumption against extraterritorial application of domestic law to limit its application to only those works with a real and substantial connection to the United States. To be …

The Problem With Intellectual Property Rights: Subject Matter Expansion, Andrew Beckerman Rodau

Andrew Beckerman Rodau

This article examines the expansion of the subject matter that can be protected under intellectual property law. Intellectual property law has developed legal rules that carefully balance competing interests. The goal has long been to provide enough legal protection to maximize incentives to engage in creative and innovative activities while also providing rules and doctrines that minimize the effect on the commercial marketplace and minimize interference with the free flow of ideas generally. The expansive view of subject matter protectable via intellectual property law has erased the clear delineation between patent, copyright, and trademark law. This has led to overprotection …

Los Derechos De Autor Y El Dominio Público, Rodolfo C. Rivas Rea Esq.

Rodolfo C. Rivas

The author discusses the subtle differences between Copyright and Author's Rights. Then he goes into analyzing the different ways a work can become part of the public domain and how it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and from time to time.////////////////////////////////////////////////////El autor analiza las sutiles diferencias entre los derechos de autor y el copyright. Posteriormente se adentra en el análisis de las formas en las que una obra entra dentro del dominio público, y como estas varían dependiendo del territorio y de la época.

Civil Procedures For A World Of Shared And User-Generated Content, Ira Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

Scholars often focus on the substance of copyrights as opposed to the procedures used to enforce them. Yet copyright enforcement procedures are at the root of significant overreach and deserve greater attention in academic literature. This Article explores three types of private enforcement procedures: direct enforcement (cease-and-desist practice); indirect enforcement (DMCA takedowns); and automated enforcement (YouTube’s Content ID filtering program). Such procedures can produce a “substance-procedure-substance” feedback loop that causes significant de facto overextensions of copyrights, particularly against those creating and sharing User-Generated Content (UGC). To avoid this feedback, the Article proposes descriptive and normative frameworks aimed towards the creation …

Fixing Ram Copies, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Aaron K. Perzanowski

Scholars, litigants, and courts have debated the status of so-called “RAM copies” - instantiations of copyrighted works in the random access memory of computing devices - for decades. The Second Circuit’s decision in Cartoon Network v. CSC Holdings has recently reignited the controversy over these putative copies. There the court held that CSC did not create copies within the meaning of the Copyright Act when it buffered fleeting segments of television programs. In many respects, the Second Circuit’s holding is a straightforward application of the Act’s nested definitions of “copies” and “fixed.” But because the court declined to apply the …

Chapter 7 - Restricting Fair Use To Save The News, Ryan T. Holte

Prof. Ryan T. Holte

Ryan T. Holte in “Restricting Fair Use to Save the News: A Proposed Change in Copyright Law to Bring More Profit to News Reporting” examines the present condition of the media and the economic and public policies behind protecting news. He further discusses current means of protecting information through copyright and misappropriation law, before proposing a change in the Copyright Act to better allow the news industry to reap profits from news reporting.

The Google Book Search Settlement And The View From The Public Interest World, Laura Quilter

Laura Quilter

No abstract provided.

The Google Book Search Settlement: Ends, Means, And The Future Of Books, James Grimmelmann

James Grimmelmann

For the past four years, Google has been systematically making digital copies of books in the collections of many major university libraries. It made the digital copies searchable through its web site--you couldn't read the books, but you could at least find out where the phrase you're looking for appears within them. This outraged copyright owners, who filed a class action lawsuit to make Google stop. Then, last fall, the parties to this large class action announced an even larger settlement: one that would give Google a license not only to scan books, but also to sell them.

The settlement …

Looking For Fair Use In The Dmca's Safety Dance, Ira Nathenson

Ira Steven Nathenson

Like a ballet, the notice-and-take-down provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") provide complex procedures to obtain take-downs of online infringement. Copyright owners send notices of infringement to service providers, who in turn remove claimed infringement in exchange for a statutory safe harbor from copyright liability. But like a dance meant for two, the DMCA is less effective in protecting the "third wheel," the users of internet services. Even Senator John McCain - who in 1998 voted for the DMCA - wrote in exasperation to YouTube after some of his presidential campaign videos were removed due to take-downs. McCain …

Rethinking Anticircumvention's Interoperability Policy, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Aaron K. Perzanowski

Interoperability is widely touted for its ability to spur incremental innovation, increase competition and consumer choice, and decrease barriers to accessibility. In light of these attributes, intellectual property law generally permits follow-on innovators to create products that interoperate with existing systems, even without permission. The anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) represent a troubling departure from this policy, resulting in patent-like rights to exclude technologies that interoperate with protected platforms. Although the DMCA contains internal safeguards to preserve interoperability, judicial misinterpretation and a narrow textual focus on software-to-software interoperability render those safeguards largely ineffective. Subjecting restrictions on …

Live Performance, Copyright, And The Future Of The Music Business, Mark F. Schultz

Mark F Schultz

This article considers whether the emergence of business models based on free digital delivery of music and other content have rendered copyright protection less necessary or justifiable. Falling production and distribution costs have led many scholars and popular commentators to conclude that creators can and should embrace free distribution models for copyrighted works. In particular, many contend that the recording industry can survive and prosper by producing and freely distributing recordings as a form of advertising for the concert business. Some have further concluded that copyright law may need to change to reflect this new reality.

This article assesses such …

Google Booksearch And Library Digitization, Laura Quilter, Jack Lerner

Laura Quilter

No abstract provided.

Scale-Free Law: Network Science And Copyright, Andres Guadamuz

Andres Guadamuz

Networks are everywhere. The staggering complexity and seemingly chaotic nature of everyday life is actually a collection of different networks interacting with us from the moment that we wake up to the time we go to sleep. We are constantly surrounded by the social network, the financial network, the transport network, the telecommunications network, and even the network within our own bodies. The understanding of how these systems operate and interact with one another has been the realm of physicists, economists, biologists and mathematicians. Until recently, the study of networks lacked empirical application because it was extremely difficult to gather …

Section 512 In The Educational Context, Laura Quilter

Laura Quilter

No abstract provided.

On Virtual Worlds: Copyright And Contract At The Dawn Of The Virtual Age, Erez Reuveni

Erez Reuveni

This Article argues that copyright law can and should apply to artistic and literary creations occurring entirely in virtual worlds. First, the Article introduces the concept of virtual worlds as places millions of people visit not only for entertainment but also for life and work. Second, the Article reviews the philosophical justifications for copyright, examines objections to applying copyright to virtual, rather than real, creative works, and concludes that neither precludes copyright for virtual creations. Third, the Article articulates how copyright law would function within virtual spaces and reviews copyrightable creations from the perspective of both game developers and players. …

Intellectual Property And Free Speech In The Online World: How Educational Institutions And Other Online Service Providers Are Coping With Cease And Desist Letters And Takedown Notices, Laura Quilter, Marjorie Heins

Laura Quilter

Study of educational institutions and online service providers (Internet service providers) and their responses to cease and desist notices.

Evolving Standards & The Future Of The Dmca Anticircumvention Rulemaking, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Aaron K. Perzanowski

Every three years, the Copyright Office conducts a rulemaking to determine temporary exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) anticircumvention provision. These exemptions are designed to prevent likely adverse impacts on noninfringing uses created by the prohibition on removing or bypassing technological protection measures that restrict access to copyrighted works. At the conclusion of the third and most recent rulemaking, the Librarian of Congress, acting on the advice of the Register of Copyrights, announced six classes of works exempt from the DMCA's anticircumvention provision for the three-year period ending October 27, 2009. This Article describes those exemptions and argues …

The Master's Tools V. The Master's House: Creative Commons V. Copyright, Severine Dusollier

Severine Dusollier

No abstract provided.

Davidson & Associates, Inc. V. Internet Gateway, Inc. ("Bnetd"), Eighth Circuit, Brief Of Amici Curiae Consumers Union And Public Knowledge In Support Of Internet Gateway, Inc., Tim Jung, Ross Combs And Rob Crittenden, Laura Quilter, Jennifer Urban, Deirdre Mulligan

Laura Quilter

Amicus brief to the Eighth Circuit.

Davidson & Associates, Inc. V. Internet Gateway, Inc. ("Bnetd"), Eighth Circuit, Brief Of Amici Curiae Consumers Union And Public Knowledge In Support Of Internet Gateway, Inc., Tim Jung, Ross Combs And Rob Crittenden, Laura Quilter, Jennifer Urban, Deirdre Mulligan

Jennifer M. Urban

Mgm V. Grokster, Brief Amici Curiae Of The Computer & Communications Industry Association And Internet Archive, In Opposition To The Writ Of Certiorari, To The United States Supreme Court, Laura Quilter, Peter Jaszi

Laura Quilter

Amicus on behalf of the Internet Archive and the CCIA, requesting the Supreme Court of the United States to deny the petition for certiorari in the MGM v. Grokster case.