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Full-Text Articles in Law

Fair Use And Appropriation Art, Niels Schaumann Mar 2017

Fair Use And Appropriation Art, Niels Schaumann

Niels Schaumann

Part I provides some background regarding aesthetic vocabulary in the arts, and traces the use of appropriated images in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. Part II discusses the general application of copyright law to appropriation art. Part III examines the current status of the fair use cases that address appropriation art and concludes that the fair use results are better than before, largely because of the ascendancy of “transformativeness” as an important fair use factor. It also concludes, however, that fair use remains insufficient to protect appropriation art. Finally, Part IV re-proposes a solution—an exception to copyright, limited to fine …


Brief Of Amicus Curiae Academic Authors And Legal Scholars In Support Of Defendants Appellees And Affirmance, Nos. 12-14676-Ff, 12-15147-Ff (April 25, 2013), David R. Hansen, Peter A. Jazsi, Pamela Samuelson, Jason Schultz, Rebecca Tushnet Oct 2016

Brief Of Amicus Curiae Academic Authors And Legal Scholars In Support Of Defendants Appellees And Affirmance, Nos. 12-14676-Ff, 12-15147-Ff (April 25, 2013), David R. Hansen, Peter A. Jazsi, Pamela Samuelson, Jason Schultz, Rebecca Tushnet

David R Hansen

No abstract provided.


Performance, Property, And The Slashing Of Gender In Fan Fiction , Sonia K. Katyal Apr 2016

Performance, Property, And The Slashing Of Gender In Fan Fiction , Sonia K. Katyal

Sonia Katyal

Today, it is no secret that the regime of copyright law, once an often-overlooked footnote to our legal system of property, now occupies a central position in modern debates surrounding the relationship between freedom of expression, language, and ownership. Curiously, however, while contemporary scholarship on copyright now embraces a wide range of political and economic approaches, it has often failed to consider how intellectual property law - as it is owned, constituted, created, and enforced - both benefits and disadvantages segments of the population in divergent ways. This absence is both vexing and fascinating. While issues of distributive justice have …


Performance, Property, And The Slashing Of Gender In Fan Fiction , Sonia K. Katyal Apr 2016

Performance, Property, And The Slashing Of Gender In Fan Fiction , Sonia K. Katyal

Sonia Katyal

Today, it is no secret that the regime of copyright law, once an often-overlooked footnote to our legal system of property, now occupies a central position in modern debates surrounding the relationship between freedom of expression, language, and ownership. Curiously, however, while contemporary scholarship on copyright now embraces a wide range of political and economic approaches, it has often failed to consider how intellectual property law - as it is owned, constituted, created, and enforced - both benefits and disadvantages segments of the population in divergent ways. This absence is both vexing and fascinating. While issues of distributive justice have …


Commentary, Critical Legal Theory In Intellectual Property And Information Law Scholarship, Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Spring Symposium, Sonia K. Katyal, Peter Goodrich Apr 2016

Commentary, Critical Legal Theory In Intellectual Property And Information Law Scholarship, Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Spring Symposium, Sonia K. Katyal, Peter Goodrich

Sonia Katyal

The very definition and scope of CLS (critical legal studies) is itself subject to debate. Some scholars characterize CLS as scholarship that employs a particular methodology—more of a “means” than an “end.” On the other hand, some scholars contend that CLS scholarship demonstrates a collective commitment to a political end goal—an emancipation of sorts —through the identification of, and resistance to, exploitative power structures that are reinforced through law and legal institutions. After a brief golden age, CLS scholarship was infamously marginalized in legal academia and its sub-disciplines. But CLS themes now appear to be making a resurgence—at least in …


Literature’S Idea-Expression Distinction: Drawing A Line With Distinctive Elements Of Alternate Worlds, Joshua Jeng Aug 2015

Literature’S Idea-Expression Distinction: Drawing A Line With Distinctive Elements Of Alternate Worlds, Joshua Jeng

Joshua Jeng

The line between ideas and expressions in copyright law has never been particularly clear. We want to protect what authors create so that they are motivated to create more, but we want broad concepts to remain free so that others may produce even more works. The distinction concept and an author's take on a concept has always been very difficult to define, even among legal scholars, and has largely remained misunderstood by the average author. However, as derivative works increase in prevalence and economic importance, the need for workable framework for understanding copyright that the lay author can understand is …


Trade Secret Fair Use, Deepa Varadarajan Jun 2015

Trade Secret Fair Use, Deepa Varadarajan

Deepa Varadarajan

Trade secret law arose to help companies protect confidential information (e.g., the Coca-Cola formula) from competitors seeking to copy their innovative efforts. But companies increasingly use trade secret law to block a wide swath of information from the scrutinizing eyes of consumers, public watchdog groups, and potential improvers. Companies can do this, in part, because trade secret law lacks clear limiting doctrines that consider the social benefits of unauthorized use. For example, trade secret law makes no allowance for the departing employee that uses proprietary information to create a substantially improved product or disclose public health risks. This Article argues …


Brief Of Amicus Curiae Academic Authors And Legal Scholars In Support Of Defendants Appellees And Affirmance, Nos. 12-14676-Ff, 12-15147-Ff (April 25, 2013), David R. Hansen, Peter A. Jazsi, Pamela Samuelson, Jason Schultz, Rebecca Tushnet Apr 2015

Brief Of Amicus Curiae Academic Authors And Legal Scholars In Support Of Defendants Appellees And Affirmance, Nos. 12-14676-Ff, 12-15147-Ff (April 25, 2013), David R. Hansen, Peter A. Jazsi, Pamela Samuelson, Jason Schultz, Rebecca Tushnet

Pamela Samuelson

No abstract provided.


Introduction - Copyright, Communication & Culture: Towards A Relational Theory Of Copyright Law, Carys J. Craig Feb 2015

Introduction - Copyright, Communication & Culture: Towards A Relational Theory Of Copyright Law, Carys J. Craig

Carys Craig

In this provocative book, Carys Craig challenges the assumptions of possessive individualism embedded in modern day copyright law, arguing that the dominant conception of copyright as private property fails to adequately reflect the realities of cultural creativity. Employing both theoretical argument and doctrinal analysis, including the novel use of feminist theory, the author explores how the assumptions of modern copyright result in law that frequently restricts the kinds of expressive activities it ought to encourage. In contrast, Carys Craig proposes a relational theory of copyright based on a dialogic account of authorship, and guided by the public interest in a …


A Positive Externalities Approach To Copyright Law: Theory And Application, Jeffrey L. Harrison Nov 2014

A Positive Externalities Approach To Copyright Law: Theory And Application, Jeffrey L. Harrison

Jeffrey L Harrison

The basic goal of copyright law is, at a general level, fairly well understood, yet the law itself seems untethered to any consistent analytical approach designed to achieve that goal. This Article has two goals. The first is to explain in some detail what copyright law might look like if it reflected economic reasoning. The second is to put to the test the question of whether copyright law is as far out of sync with economic guidelines as White-Smith Music and Eldred suggest. In order to understand the economic approach and the inconsistency of copyright law, as well as the …


Breaking The Vicious Circularity: Sony's Contribution To The Fair Use Doctrine, Frank Pasquale Aug 2013

Breaking The Vicious Circularity: Sony's Contribution To The Fair Use Doctrine, Frank Pasquale

Frank A. Pasquale

The fair use doctrine permits certain uses of copyrighted material that are unauthorized by the copyright holder. In 1984, the Supreme Court decided in Sony v. Universal Studios (Sony) that unauthorized home taping of television programs was a fair use of such programs. Decried by the dissent and frequently contested in ensuing cases, that decision sealed the majority's case that the videotape recorder was capable of substantial non-infringing uses and therefore legal. In the twenty years since Sony, the dissent's skepticism about the fairness of time-shifting has gotten about as warm a reception in appellate courts as the majority's position. …


Global Warming Trend? The Creeping Indulgence Of Fair Use In International Copyright Law, Richard Peltz-Steele Jun 2013

Global Warming Trend? The Creeping Indulgence Of Fair Use In International Copyright Law, Richard Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

In her article Toward an International Fair Use Doctrine in 2000, Professor Ruth Okediji hypothesized that the internationalization of copyright law would threaten the freedom of expression if some doctrine akin to U.S. “fair use” were not established as an international legal norm. Acknowledging the central concern of the Okediji article, this paper analyzes research and legal developments since that article to determine how the present state of the “fair use” concept in international copyright law differs from its state in 2000. The paper concludes that in the last eight years, though there has been no formal adoption of an …


Untold Stories In South Africa: Creative Consequences Of The Rights Clearance Culture For Documentary Filmmakers, Sean M. Flynn, Peter A. Jaszi Aug 2012

Untold Stories In South Africa: Creative Consequences Of The Rights Clearance Culture For Documentary Filmmakers, Sean M. Flynn, Peter A. Jaszi

Peter Jaszi

This report summarizes research on the perceptions of South African documentary filmmakers about copyright clearance requirements and the effect of such requirements on their work. This work was performed in the context of a larger project exploring how lessons learned from “best practices” projects with documentary filmmakers in the U.S. can help their counterparts in other countries identify and overcome barriers to effective film making posed by escalating copyright clearance requirements.


Code Of Best Practices In Fair Use For Online Video, Peter A. Jaszi, Patricia Aufderheide Aug 2012

Code Of Best Practices In Fair Use For Online Video, Peter A. Jaszi, Patricia Aufderheide

Peter Jaszi

Until the release of these best practices, anyone uploading a video ran the risk of becoming inadvertently entangled in an industry skirmish, as media companies struggle to keep their programs from circulating on the internet. This document is a code of best practices created by a collaborative team of media scholars and lawyers, to help creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video, interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use in online video. The code identifies, among other things, six kinds of unlicensed uses of copyrighted material that may be considered fair, under certain …


Towards A Pedagogy Of Fair Use For Multimedia Composition, Renee Hobbs, Katie E. Donnelly Dec 2010

Towards A Pedagogy Of Fair Use For Multimedia Composition, Renee Hobbs, Katie E. Donnelly

Renee Hobbs

No abstract provided.


Everything Is Connected, Kembrew Mcleod Oct 2010

Everything Is Connected, Kembrew Mcleod

Kembrew McLeod

The article discusses U.S. copyright law and the copyright clearance system, focusing on the author's documentary film "Copyright Criminals," which aired on Public Broadcasting System (PBS). It explores sampling and collage in audiovisual media, commenting on use of the practice by hip-hop group Public Enemy. Other topics include the Washington, D.C. Center for Social Media, intellectual property, and fair use. The author also examines his book "Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property" and a prank in which he successfully copyrighted the phrase "Freedom of Expression"


Calibrating Copyright Statutory Damages To Promote Speech, Alan Garfield Dec 2009

Calibrating Copyright Statutory Damages To Promote Speech, Alan Garfield

Alan E Garfield

Copyright and the First Amendment exist in tension. The Supreme Court acknowledges this tension but says that copyright law resolves it with two built-in free speech safeguards: (1) by protecting only the expression of ideas and not the ideas themselves (the idea/expression dichotomy); and (2) by allowing the use of expression under certain circumstances (the fair use doctrine). The problem is that these doctrines are notoriously vague, so users often cannot know ex ante whether their uses will be immune from liability. This unpredictably might be tolerable if users could be confident that, if they were subject to liability, any …