Law Commons^™

Copyright And Fair Use In Law Office Libraries, James S. Heller

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Should Canada Enact A New Sui Generis Database Right? , C.D. Freedman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Preserving The Traditional Copyright Balance, Christine Jeanneret

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

If Per Se Is Dying, Why Not In Tv Tying? A Case For Adopting The Rule Of Reason Standard In Television Block- Booking Arrangements, Nicole Labletta

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Battle Of The Music Industry: The Distribution Of Audio And Video Works Via The Internet, Music And More, David Balaban

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Copyright Preemption And The Right Of Publicity, Jennifer E. Rothman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses the conflict between an ever-expanding right of publicity and the federally guaranteed rights provided by copyright law. This conflict is highlighted in the Wendt v. Host International case in which the actors George Wendt and John Ratzenberger from Cheers used the right of publicity to prevent the show's creators from licensing the use of the Norm and Cliff characters in the decor of a chain of airport bars. Even though the licensing of the characters was explicitly allowed under copyright law, the Ninth Circuit held that the right of publicity prevented the creators from doing so. Similarly, …

Dealing With Old Father William, Or Moving From Constitutional Text To Constitutional Doctrine: Progress Clause Review Of The Copyright Term Extension Act, Malla Pollack

Malla Pollack

The author suggests a textual approach to the choice of review standards for statutes enacted purusant to the so-called Intellectual Property Clause, which is more properly named the Progress Clause. Turning to text of the Constitution s relatively unproblematic because the Progress Clause contains unusually detailed constitutional text. Furthermore, what little the Court has stated about the fundamental goals of the Clause matches the author's reading of its text. Any approach based on the drafting or ratification discussions stumbles on the thinness of the record, as well as the record's possible unreliability. The text supports a standard of review higher …

Means/Ends Analysis In Copyright Law: Eldred V. Ashcroft In One Act, Dan T. Coenen, Paul J. Heald

Scholarly Works

Scene: The quiet hallway of a law school. A troubled young professor of Intellectual Property law stands in front of a senior colleague's office and studies a pencil sketch of Bushrod Washington taped to the door. After a moment's hesitation, he knocks and enters.

Means/Ends Analysis In Copyright Law: Eldred V. Ashcroft In One Act, Dan T. Coenen, Paul J. Heald

Scholarly Works

The authors examine Eldred v. Ashcroft in a play setting where one of the characters plays a constitutional law professor and the other character plays an intellectual property professor.

Pliability Rules, Abraham Bell, Gideon Parchomovsky

Michigan Law Review

In 1543, the Polish astronomer, Nicolas Copernicus, determined the heliocentric design of the solar system. Copernicus was motivated in large part by the conviction that Claudius Ptolemy's geocentric astronomical model, which dominated scientific thought at that time, was too incoherent, complex, and convoluted to be true. Hence, Copernicus made a point of making his model coherent, simple, and elegant. Nearly three and a half centuries later, at the height of the impressionist movement, the French painter Claude Monet set out to depict the Ruen Cathedral in a series of twenty paintings, each presenting the cathedral in a different light. Monet's …

Feist Goes Global: A Comparative Analysis Of The Notion Of Originality In Copyright Law, Daniel J. Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

he 1991 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc. delivered was hailed both as a landmark decision and a legal bomb. Was Feist so original as to deserve all the attention? After all, it did not establish a new originality paradigm as such but only ended a long division among federal circuits concerning the protection under copyright of factual compilations. A number of circuits had adopted a test similar to the one articulated in Feist (i.e., based on creative selection), while others required only evidence of labor, a test known as sweat of the …

Digital Millennium Copyright Act: A True And Illustrative Dmca Case Study, Raleigh Muns

Raleigh Muns

Notes On Dissemination: The Prop/Tort Distinction - 2002, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Most of the proviso-based reasons for restricting property rights come into play after dissemination.[1] Is there any other way in which dissemination matters? Yes; the point of dissemination demarks a crucial shift in the Kind of legal protection that must be given- and thus the Kind of institutional decisions that must be made- if the creator is to be protected.

Brief Amici Curiae Of The Progressive Intellectual Property Law Association And The Union For The Public Domain In Partial Support Of Petitioners, Eldred V. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003), Michael H. Davis

Law Faculty Briefs and Court Documents

This case affords this Court a unique opportunity to do more by doing less. Judicial restraint generally impels this Court to decide only essential constitutional issues. Here the issues are uniquely situated so that the decision of only one issue—that of retrospective extensions—will do far more than merely defer the remaining issue of prospective extensions, but will render that issue permanently beyond any need of judicial review. If this Court decides that retrospective extensions are unconstitutional, it will not only be able to avoid deciding the other issue today of whether a prospective extension violates the “limited times” Constitutional provision3 …

Collective Management Of Copyright And Neighbouring Rights In Canada: An International Perspective, Daniel J. Gervais

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In this paper, we will compare the current Canadian framework and activities of Collective Management Organizations with the situation in a number of other major countries and suggest possible improvements to the current regime. The comparison will focus first on the general legal background for collective management and, second, on issues specific to the digital age. The paper only addresses some of the specific issues raised by the 1996 WCT and WPPT.

Don't Shoot The Messenger! A Discussion Of Isp Liability, Andrew Bernstein, Rima Ramchandani

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In today’s world of rampant networked communica- tion, the Internet Service Provider (‘‘ISP’’) finds itself in a uniquely vulnerable position. As the conduit through which content is disseminated to a numerically and geo- graphically vast audience, the obvious legal risk to ISPs is that those who provide content will do so in a way that attracts legal liability. Like many communications prov- iders (such as publishers or broadcasters), the ISP may have to assume some responsibility for simply providing the means of transmitting content. In some cases, the ISP is more actively involved in the transmission or is know- ingly …

First Amendment Limits On Copyright, C. Edwin Baker

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although the tension between copyright and the First Amendment has long been noted and increasing numbers of First Amendment challenges to copyright have recently been filed, few scholarly commentaries have gone beyond relatively narrow attempts at doctrinal accommodation. Under the assumption either that existing copyright law fully accommodates First Amendment interests or that some balance is appropriate, commentators have avoided any principled exploration of the full force of First Amendment principles. This Essay aims to fill that gap. Rather than use mechanical doctrine to evaluate existing copyright law, this Essay begins with a theoretical approach to the First Amendment and …

Disruptive Technology And Common Law Lawmaking: A Brief Analysis Of A&M Records, Inc. V. Napster, Inc., Michael W. Carroll

Michael W. Carroll

This symposium Article analyzes the Ninth Circuit's decision in A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. After setting the stage with a comparison to the rise of cable television, and a description of the technologies underpinning Napster's service, the Article analyzes the doctrinal developments in the Ninth Circuit's opinion. The principal analytical points are that: (1) the court's definitions of "sampling" and "space-shifting" were overbroad, leading to oversimple fair use analysis; (2) the court's treatment of vicarious liablility for copyright infringement is doctrinally incoherent because it suggests that liability depends on whether a third party has "turn[ed] a blind eye" toward …

Infringement Once Removed: The Perils Of Hyperlinking To Infringing Content, Stacey Dogan

Faculty Scholarship

This Article contends that the basic premise of Sony---that context and effect must play a role in evaluating allegations of secondary liability for copyright infringement-has application beyond the isolated case of equipment manufacture. More specifically, I propose a modified Sony framework for evaluating secondary liability for linking to infringing content. While this approach repudiates the strict view of secondary liability in favor of a more nuanced analysis, it stops short of advocating wholesale immunity for linkers. To the contrary, I contend that certain links, like certain acts of direct infringement, threaten copyright law's incentives with few compensating benefits to the …

Understanding The Impact Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act On The Open Source Model Of Software Development, Theodore C. Mccullough

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Mr. McCullough discusses the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the traditional and open source models of software development. He argues that the "DMCA supports the 'Traditional Model' of software development, at the expense of the 'Open Source Model,' by limiting the ability of open source developers to write programs that increase interoperability and by limiting their ability to engage in peer review for such programs." He also discusses the competing interpretations of the Reverse Engineering Safe Harbor and proposes statutory solutions to the overall lack of protection afforded to software developers using copyrightable materials to promote interoperability.

Eldred V. Ashcroft And Why The U.S. Supreme Court Should Reject, Roger P. Foley

Roger P. Foley

Among the most important issues facing the entertainment industry today is the scope and level of protections available to the industry for its works. Chief amongst those protections are the federal copyright laws. These laws are now under considerable scrutiny as the United States Supreme Court decides whether or not to strike down as unconstitutional a major extension of the terms of protection provided for in those laws. As will be discussed, it is by no means accepted truth that the extension of the term of protections of the copyright laws is beneficial for the entertainment industry or even for …

Beyond Napster: Using Antitrust Law To Advance And Enhance Online Music Distribution, Matthew Fagin, Frank Pasquale, Kim Weatherall

Faculty Scholarship

What should be the broad principles guiding the copyright and competition policy governing online music? In short, what are the key concerns or values that we want preserved in relation to the distribution of music online? We will outline the background to the present investigations and existing law in Part I and argue in Part II that these concerns can be encapsulated in two broad areas: (1) the preservation of some scope for private and personal use and (2) the encouragement and growth of a diverse sector for the distribution of copyrighted works online. We also argue that, at least …

"Originality" After The Dead Sea Scrolls Decision: Implications For The American Law Of Copyright, Urzula Tempska

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Ms. Tempska examines the Israel Supreme Court's ruling on August 31, 2002 regarding reconstruction and copyright infringement of the Dead Sea Scrolls. She reviews the copyrightability doctrine and its possible misapplications, illustrates the reconstruction process of the text involving the Dead Sea Scrolls, and describes the legal arguments and procedure of the Dead Sea Scrolls case. Tempska concludes that: 1) the arguments opposing copyright protection fail because they gloss over the facts of the reconstruction process and disregard the originality requirement for copyrightability under United States law; 2) the Israeli court's copyrightability analyses adequately accounted for the creative process, the …

Law And Information Platforms, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Electronic Jungle: The Application Of Intellectual Property Law To Distance Education, Jon Garon

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The tension between academic institutions as creators and consumers of intellectual property seems to be most directly felt in the new areas of distance education. Despite the significant opportunities to use new media to expand the reach of the classroom to an ever-growing body of students, concerns regarding copyright, trademark and defamation law continue to limit and dictate what schools attempt to do. These limitations are more directly felt by individual instructors, who must enforce appropriate usage policies for their students, create copyrighted materials and negotiate with their schools over the ownership of the valuable content created.

This Article has …

Justice Between Authors, Dawn C. Nunziato

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Traditionally, authors' copyright rights have been limited in order to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. However, authors today are increasingly employing additional protective measures that arguably are not subject to such limitations. Even if such extra-copyright measures are not limited like copyright protections, several principles underlying the copyright regime support imposing such limits on authors' rights. In this Article, based upon John Rawls's theory of justice as fairness, I develop a theory of justice between generations of authors. This theory requires that the rights of each generation of authors be limited for the benefit of subsequent …

The Internationalization Of Intellectual Property: New Challenges From The Very Old And The Very New, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Intellectual property concepts embodied in international treaties and national laws date back to the eighteenth century. Many fundamental concepts (originality in copyright law; confusion in trademark law; novelty or inventiveness in patent law) vary from one country's national legislation to another. Yet, many critics of the intellectual property system recognize that solutions to the problems, ranging from database protection to the Internet, should ideally be the same worldwide. In today's globalized economy, it makes sense to adopt rules to protect that take account of the laws and practices of other nations and of the work of international organizations. Protecting only …

Collective Management Of Copyright And Neighboring Rights In Canada: An International Perspective, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

It is a generally held view that copyright in civil law countries is a child of the French Revolution and should be considered an inalienable right of the author, a human right in other words. In fact, it is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Granted, in several cases the economic component of the right is transferred to, e.g., a publisher or a producer, but it remains, at source, a right of the author, the creator of the protected work (or object of a related right). By contrast, one often hears that, in common law jurisdictions, …

Copyright Limitations And Contracts. An Analysis Of The Contractual Overridability Of Limitations On Copyright, Lucie Guibault

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Traditional copyright law strikes a delicate balance between an author's control of original material and society's interest in the free flow of ideas, information, and commerce. In today's digitally networked environment, this balance has shifted dramatically to one side, as powerful rights holders contractually impose terms and conditions of use far beyond the bounds set by copyright law. This vitally significant book explores this conflict from its gestation through its current manifestations to its future lineaments and potential consequences. Focusing on statutory copyright limitations that enshrine constitutional rights such as freedom of expression and privacy, foster dissemination of knowledge, safeguard …

Disruptive Technology And Common Law Lawmaking: A Brief Analysis Of A&M Records, Inc. V. Napster, Inc., Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This symposium Article analyzes the Ninth Circuit's decision in A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. After setting the stage with a comparison to the rise of cable television, and a description of the technologies underpinning Napster's service, the Article analyzes the doctrinal developments in the Ninth Circuit's opinion. The principal analytical points are that: (1) the court's definitions of "sampling" and "space-shifting" were overbroad, leading to oversimple fair use analysis; (2) the court's treatment of vicarious liablility for copyright infringement is doctrinally incoherent because it suggests that liability depends on whether a third party has "turn[ed] a blind eye" toward …