Law Commons^™

Predicting Fair Use, Matthew Sag

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

An Information-Gathering Approach To Copyright Policy, Matthew Sag

Faculty Publications & Other Works

For over a century and with increasing frequency, major controversies have erupted between large distributors of copyrighted works (song publishers, movie studios, record labels, book publishers, etc.) and makers of new technologies for experiencing those works (player piano manufacturers, VCR manufacturers, the creators of file sharing software, Google Books, etc.). Usually, the copyright owners and the technology firms reach a licensing deal-but not without some form of government intervention. Various institutions within the federal government have become involved in these disputes, using a variety of different mechanisms. This Article is a theoretical investigation of government intervention in these content-technology copyright …

Orphan Works As Grist For The Data Mill, Matthew Sag

Faculty Publications & Other Works

The phenomenon of library digitization in general, and the digitization of so-called“orphan works” in particular, raises many important copyright law questions. However, as this Article explains, correctly understood, there is no orphan works problem for certain kinds of library digitization.

The distinction between expressive and non-expressive works is already well recognized in copyright law as the gatekeeper to copyright protection—novels are protected by copyright, while telephone books and other uncreative compilations of data are not. The same distinction should generally be made in relation to potential acts of infringement.

Preserving the functional force of the idea-expression distinction in the digital …