Law Commons^™

Draft Of Ralph Sharp Brown, Intellectual Property And The Public Interest - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Ralph Sharp Brown crossed out the "Junior" that followed his name after his father died. In explanation of the hand-altered stationery, he said (if my recollection holds), "I'm the only one left now." Now, after Ralph's death, there may remain no Ralph Sharp Browns. But there are many law teachers who continue to wage the campaign that Ralph made his life work: to save an interdependent society from unnecessary and stagnating restraints on liberty. In the intellectual property area, Ralph sought to teach us that it can be both right and necessary to give individuals the liberty to "reap without …

New Thoughts And Excerpt From On Commodifying Intangibles - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Here is a ten-page excerpt from! a published piece, followed by some more recent and more random thoughts. Community is not civility. That is, I imagine my ideal community as one where people aren't always sweet to each other; I imagine a community where truth is more important than hurt feelings, and fun is more important than money. I imagine a community of individualists: raucous, iconoclastic. Steve Shiffrin's ROMANCE OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT and Ed Baker's work seems to have the kind of community in mind that I am interested in.

Electronic Rights Management And Digital Identifier Systems, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The new world of digital information requires a new way of providing access to that information — while keeping the copyright backbone. It might be technically easier to create a digital infrastructure without copyright: Just throw works up on the Internet, and let anyone get to them for any purposes. But such systems have been suggested and roundly rejected by those who create and own works of value. So we need to build an electronic infrastructure that works with copyright and takes advantage of the digital environment. This paper looks at the attempts to build part of that infrastructure — …

When Does A Work Infringe The Derivative Works Right Of A Copyright Owner?, Amy B. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

Consider the following fact situation: A, an artist, designs art work and registers the copyright in that art work. A then licenses P to publish note cards using the art work. The note cards are published by P and distributed to retail card stores. T purchases several hundred cards and then takes each card, glues it carefully to a ceramic tile, and sells the tiles for a profit as "tile art" that purchasers can use to decorate walls, counters, even floors. If A now sues T for copyright infringement, how should the court rule? Has T infringed A's copyright?

In …

Is The Trips Agreement An Adequate Means To Deal With Unauthorized Copying Of Sound Recordings From The Internet?, Hege Sehested Zakariassen

LLM Theses and Essays

The Internet has expanded vastly in recent years, both in use and utility. It has become one of the most important means of distributors of information in our time. This increasing popularity has also led to "online fraud, theft, piracy, and infringement. The music industry is one of the branches that will experience upheaval in the next few years. The Internet might even change the way music is distributed. Experts believe that the Internet could alter the way music is distributed and undermine the physical distribution of sound recordings. Yet, on the other hand, the Internet could help unknown bands …

Attorney Hit With Sanctions For Poor Brief (New York Law Journal), Deborah Pines

News Articles

No abstract provided.

Outline Of Epstein's Possession As The Root Of Title, And Other Matters - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

While it may be premature to expect a full working out of detail, it is surely time enough for some semblance of a unified theory of intellectual property law to have emerged. That it has not is due to some extent to the very evil which the existence of such a theory (or the beginnings of one) would prevent, namely, the errors that opinions are heir to. Recognizing common themes would help to isolate deviations, and thus help to clarify their nature; whether in a given context a deviation is justified could then be discussed on its own merits, wihout …

When Is Property Intellectual: The Leveraging Problem Essays, Mark R. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

Patents and copyrights protect inventions and expression; they do not protect products. This distinction, I argue in this essay, is a key to the antitrust problem of the "leveraging" of intellectual property. In a typical leveraging case, the manufacturer of a durable good, like a copier or computer, refuses to sell replacement parts for its equipment unless the purchaser also hires the manufacturer to service the equipment. Such a practice can be illegal under antitrust law, but when the leveraging products-in this example, replacement parts-are protected by patent or copyright, the manufacturer will often claim that the leveraging is a …

Ralph Sharp Brown, Intellectual Property And The Public Interest--Introduction, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Ralph Sharp Brown crossed out the "Junior" that followed his name after his father died. In explanation of the hand-altered stationery, he said (if my recollection holds), "I'm the only one left now." Now, after Ralph's death, there may remain no Ralph Sharp Browns. But there are many law teachers who continue to wage the campaign that Ralph made his life work: to save an interdependent society from unnecessary and stagnating restraints on liberty. In the intellectual property area, Ralph sought to teach us that it can be both right and necessary to give individuals the liberty to "reap without …

When You Wish Upon A Star: Explaining The Cautious Growth Of Royalty-Backed Securitization, Lisa M. Fairfax

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article focuses on the phenomenon of securitizing future royalties of entertainers, illustrating why securitzation of such royalties has not been embraced more enthusiastically. The article begins by describing the securitization process in general and the differences between mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. The article then examines the benefits of securitization as applied to entertainment royalties. Benefits of securitization include immediate liquidity, less expensive capital, and diversification of the suppliers of the originator’s funding. However, securitization does not make sense for many entertainers unless they need large sums of cash. Moreover, securitizing royalties may not be viable because it creates a …

Digital Technology And Copyright: A Threat Or A Promise - Introduction, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

On November 14, 1998, Franklin Pierce Law Center (FPLC), in cooperation with the Kenneth J. Germeshausen Center for the Law of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the PTC Research Foundation, both of which are headquartered at FPLC, held its Seventh Biennial Intellectual Property System Major Problems Conference. While noteworthy for a broadening in scope over previous conferences - from "patent system major problems" to "intellectual property system major problems" - the seventh biennial conference continues a tradition of scholarship and discussion begun in 1987 by former FPLC professor Homer O. Blair.

The discussions in Professor Blair's inaugural major problems conference focused …