Law Commons^™

Rethinking Copyright: Property Through The Lenses Of Unjust Enrichment And Unfair Competition, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Faculty Scholarship

For some time now, scholars have come to recognize the existence of numerous structural infirmities deeply embedded within the modern copyright system. Most of these infirmities have been attributed to internal tensions within copyright law and policy, including the competing philosophies of access and control, use and exclusion, and rights and exceptions. Professor Stadler’s insightful article documents these tensions and proposes a new way of mediating them. She argues that copyright law is best understood as instantiating a restriction
on unfair competition and, consequently, that it should do little more than protect creators of original works from “competitive harm” in …

Separating The Sony Sheep From The Grokster Goats: Reckoning The Future Business Plans Of Copyright-Dependent Technology Entrepeneurs, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In MGM v. Grokster, the U.S. Supreme Court established that businesses built from the start on inducing copyright infringement will be held liable, as judges will frown on drawing one's start-up capital from other people's copyrights. The Court's elucidation of the elements of inducement suggests that even businesses not initially built on infringement, but in which infringement comes to play an increasingly profitable part, may find themselves liable unless they take good faith measures to forestall infringements. This Article addresses the evolution of the U.S. judge-made rules of secondary liability for copyright infringement, and the possible emergence of an obligation …

Tolerated Use, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

"Tolerated use" is a term that refers to the contemporary spread of technically infringing, but nonetheless tolerated, use of copyrighted works. Such patterns of mass infringement have occurred before in copyright history, though perhaps not on the same scale, and have usually been settled with the use of special laws, called compulsory licensing regimes, more familiar to non-copyright scholars as liability rules. This paper suggests that, in present times, a different and slightly unusual solution to the issue of widespread illegal use is emerging-an "opt-in" system for copyright holders, that is in property terms a rare species of ex post …

The Social Costs Of Property Rights In Broadcast (And Cable) Signals, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Faculty Scholarship

The use of property as a regulatory mechanism in the telecommunications sector is hardly novel. Since the early twentieth century, policy makers and regulators in the United States have experimented with different mechanisms for allocating private rights in the radio spectrum. In 1959, Ronald Coase proposed that the FCC auction rights in the broadcast spectrum and convert broadcast licenses into tradable commodities. However, it was not until very recently that the FCC implemented Coase's idea. At least part of the reason for the long delay in implementing this seemingly efficient mechanism lay in the public nature of broadcasting and the …

An Idea Whose Time Has Come – But Where Will It Go, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This Reply picks up where Professor Miller's bold proposal leaves off: with the private international law and international copyright implications of state common law protection for idea-submitters. We will first address the compatibility of the proposal with international copyright norms disqualifying ideas from copyright protection. We will then turn to the consequences of the proposal for a federal system. Professor Miller's article thoroughly examines one aspect of the federalism problem, that of federal copyright policy preemption of statebased idea protection. But in advocating a regime constricted to the fifty separate states, not all of whose courts choose to secure idea …

The Author's Name As A Trademark: A Perverse Perspective On The Moral Right Of "Paternity"?, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The US. Supreme Court in its 2003 decision in Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox, construing the Lanham Federal Trademarks Act, deprived authors of their principal legal means to enforce attribution rights in the US. I have elsewhere criticized the Dastar Court's analysis, and have urged amending the Copyright Act to provide express recognition of the attribution right. This time, however, I propose to reconsider the foundation for the attribution right; I draw on literary and historical sources to supplement legal arguments concerning the meaning of the author's name. I will suggest that, contrary to the usual characterization of this …

Legal Protection Of Technological Measures Protecting Works Of Authorship: International Obligations And The Us Experience, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The ongoing transposition of the EU Information Society Directive's requirement that member States adopt of legal prohibitions of the circumvention of technological protections of works of authorship occasions this review of international obligations and their implementation in the US. This article addresses the scope of international obligations the WIPO Copyright Treaties impose on member States to protect against circumvention, as well as the US experience with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's prohibitions on circumvention of access and copy controls. It examines the text of the statute, codified at sec. 1201 of the 1976 Copyright Act, the five years of judicial …

The (New?) Right Of Making Available To The Public, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

I am honoured to contribute to this Festschrift for Bill Cornish, the leading exponent of the English (even if many of them are in fact Anzacs) School of Copyright and Intellectual Property. In addition to greatly valuing his scholarship, I hold Bill in especial esteem for his unswerving sanity in ALAI meetings, and for the piano duets in which he occasionally indulges my spouse. The following essay is offered in the spirit of international inquisitiveness that has animated so many of my contacts with Bill.

The Right To Claim Authorship In U.S. Copyright And Trademarks Law, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

If you inquired among the general public, “What does U.S. copyright law protect?” many people might start by grumbling that it overprotects piggish record companies. Calming slightly, they might next reply that copyright protects authors' rights and that among those is the right to be recognized as the author of the work. Indeed, few interests seem as fundamentally intuitive as that authorship credit should be given where credit is due. For example, in prelapsarian, pre-Napster days, the act of copyright infringement in which a youthful individual most likely engaged was probably plagiarism: there, lifting another author's text may have been …

Rethinking Copyright Misuse, Kathryn Judge

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last few decades, copyright has evolved in dramatic and unprecedented ways. At the heart of this evolution lies a series of changes in the statutory scheme that have substantially expanded copyright's scope. There has also been a rise in private ordering as copyright holders increasingly use licenses to govern use of their copyrighted material and thereby supplant the default terms prescribed by the Copyright Act. Mediating and contributing to this evolution has been the judiciary. The judiciary has long played an active role in protecting copyright policy, and the dynamism of the last thirty years has only accentuated …

Publishing Privacy: Intellectual Property, Self-Expression, And The Victorian Novel, Jessica Bulman-Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

The relationship between privacy and intellectual property has resurfaced with a twist at the turn of the twenty-first century. If Victorian authors regarded intellectual property as private, contemporary proposals instead urge us to regard private information as property. In response to technological developments that have facilitated unprecedented invasions of individuals’ privacy, some scholars have advocated legally classifying private information as a form of property. These scholars insist that the best way to respond to privacy violations, particularly corporate commodification of personal data, is to invest people with property rights that would furnish control over their personal information. Insofar as intellectual …

Achieving Balance In International Copyright Law, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted two related treaties, the WIPO Copyright Treaty, and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (the WIPO Treaties). Though now often referred to as the "WIPO Internet Treaties," the agreements emerged after five years of preparation, only the last two of which focused on a "digital agenda." These treaties, following on the 1994 World Trade Organization TRIPs Accord, have substantially expanded, and somewhat harmonized, the role of international copyright and neighboring rights norms in the international exchange of works of authorship and related productions. When enactment of the WIPO Treaties with their …

The Concept Of Authorship In Comparative Copyright Law, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In contemporary debates over copyright, the figure of the author is too-often absent. As a result, these discussions tend to lose sight of copyright's role in fostering creativity. I believe that refocussing discussion on authors – the constitutional subjects of copyright – should restore a proper perspective on copyright law, as a system designed to advance the public goal of expanding knowledge, by means of stimulating the efforts and imaginations of private creative actors. Copyright cannot be understood merely as a grudgingly tolerated way station on the road to the public domain. Nor does a view of copyright as a …

Common Law And Statutory Restrictions On Access: Contract, Trespass, And The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

Is copyright law relevant to the terms of access to information? Certainly, few would seriously contend that breaking into a locked filing cabinet to obtain access to a manuscript is not sanctionable, even if the intruder had some purpose that copyright law would applaud with respect to the information contained in the manuscript itself. Many instinctively believe that one must pay the asking price and respect the terms that accompany a copyrighted work or face the consequences under some set of laws like copyrights or contracts. In short, society likely generally believes that market forces regulate the conditions of access …

"The Exclusive Right To Their Writings": Copyright And Control In The Digital Age, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, I will explore the concept of control and the meaning of exclusive rights in the constitutional text, the pre-1976 Copyright Act regime, and the 1976 Act. I then consider the new technology cases from piano rolls through videotaperecorders, as well as Congress' responses to new technological means of exploitation. I make two submissions. First, I conclude that when copyright owners seek to eliminate a new kind of dissemination, and when courts do not deem that dissemination harmful to copyright owners, courts decline to find infringement, even though the legal and economic analysis that support those determinations often …

From Having Copies To Experiencing Works: The Development Of An Access Right In U.S. Copyright Law, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This essay addresses how current U.S. copyright law responds to new forms of distribution of copyrighted works, through the emerging right to control digital access to copyrighted works, as set out in § 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When the exploitation of works shifts from having copies to directly experiencing the content of the work, the author's ability to control access becomes crucial. Indeed, in the digital environment, without an access right, it is difficult to see how authors can maintain the exclusive Right to their Writings that the Constitution authorizes Congress to secure. Even if Congress …

Have Moral Rights Come Of (Digital) Age In The United States?, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

More than any other contemporary American legal scholar, Professor Merryman has drawn attention to the moral rights claims of artists. Anything written in the field in the United States since 1976 owes inspiration to The Refrigerator of Bernard Buffet ("The Refrigerator") Professor Merryman's seminal article in the 1976 Hastings Law Journal. I feel this particularly acutely since I became interested in the issue as a law student, in 1978. It looked like a hopeful time, for Professor Merryman had shown the way, and the Second Circuit, in the then-recently decided Monty Python case, seemed to be paying heed. The …

Copyright And Control Over New Technologies Of Dissemination, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The relationship of copyright to new technologies that exploit copyrighted works is often perceived to pit copyright against progress. Historically, when copyright owners seek to eliminate a new kind of dissemination, and when courts do not deem that dissemination harmful to copyright owners, courts decline to find infringement. However, when owners seek instead to participate in and be paid for the new modes of exploitation, the courts, and Congress, appear more favorable to copyright control over that new market. Today, the courts and Congress regard the unlicensed distribution of works over the Internet as impairing copyright owners' ability to avail …

The Constitutionality Of Copyright Term Extension: How Long Is Too Long, Jane C. Ginsburg, Wendy J. Gordon, Arthur R. Miller, William F. Patry

Faculty Scholarship

I am Professor William Patry of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. I will be the moderator of this star-studded debate on the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

This panel will try to determine, on the great continuum of limited times that the Constitution prescribes for copyright in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, the term of protection that Congress has actually fixed. In other words: How long is too long? Sonny's bill establishes a term of protection of life plus seventy years for individual authors for works created on or after January 1, 1978. The bill retroactively …

International Copyright: From A "Bundle" Of National Copyright Laws To A Supranational Code?, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the number and content of substantive norms that international copyright treaties impose on member states have increased considerably. It is therefore appropriate to consider the extent to which those instruments have in effect created an international (or at least multinational) copyright code, as well as to inquire what role national copyright laws do and should have in an era not only of international copyright norms, but of international dissemination of copyrighted works. This Article first considers the displacement of national norms through the evolution of a de facto international copyright code, elaborated in multilateral instruments such as …

Copyright Use And Excuse On The Internet, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

1998 ended with voluminous copyright legislation, pompously titled the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" [hereafter "DMCA"], and intended to equip the copyright law to meet the challenges of online digital exploitation of works of authorship. 1999 and 2000 have brought some of the ensuing confrontations between copyright owners and Internet entrepreneurs to the courts. The evolving caselaw affords an initial opportunity to assess whether the copyright law as abundantly amended can indeed respond to digital networks, or whether the rapid development of the Internet inevitably outstrips Congress' and the courts' attempts to keep pace.

In titling this Article "Copyright Use and …

Authors As "Licensors" Of "Informational Rights" Under U.C.C. Article 2b, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

U.C.C. Articles 2B of the Uniform Commercial Code was designed primarily to regulate online and mass market transactions, particularly the licensing of computer software. Its effects, however, will extend to authors of works other than computer software. This Article considers the effects Article 2B would have on dealings between those authors and the exploiters of the authors' works. By reducing procedural barriers to the formation of licenses, Article 2B would make it all too easy for an author to assent to contract terms that may heavily favor an exploiter of the author's work. On the other hand, default contract terms …

Copyright, Common Law, And Sui Generis Protection Of Databases In The United States And Abroad, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

What protection remains for compilations of information, particularly digital databases, since the United States Supreme Court swept away "sweat copyright" in its 1991 Feist decision? "Thin" copyright protection is still available, but it covers only the original contributions (if any) that the compiler brings to the public domain information. Moreover, Feist makes clear that padding the compilation with original added value will not flesh out the skeletal figure beneath: the information, stripped of selection, arrangement, or other copyrightable frills, remains free for the taking.

If copyright is unavailing, contract is appearing more promising, as mass-market, "shrinkwrap" and "click-on" licenses gain …

Authors And Users In Copyright, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

It has become fashionable, among some thinkers and activists in copyright and related fields, to disparage or to deplore copyright protection. For one drawn to copyright both for its intellectual fascination and its inspiring goals of fostering creativity and protecting authorship, I am distressed to learn that I am among the defenders of a fallen faith, that authors' rights are misguided (if not pernicious) impediments to technological progress, and, worst of all, that copyright blocks freedom of thought and speech in cyberspace. Digital agendas notwithstanding, some of this derogatory discourse is not new; infringers have long found eloquent, if somewhat …

Extraterritoriality And Multiterritorality In Copyright Infringement, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Extraterritorial application of U.S. law, as Professor Curtis Bradley demonstrates, is highly suspect, if not illegitimate, unless clearly authorized by Congress. The apparently “extraterritorial” character of much recent copyright litigation has led some U.S. courts to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction or on grounds of forum non conveniens when the cases present offshore points of attachment. As copyright commerce becomes increasingly international, some of these dismissals may be unwarranted. They also may be incorrect in their refusal to apply U.S. law or retain U.S. jurisdiction over the parties: the decisions may be too quick to perceive "extra"-territoriality in …

U. S. Federalism And Intellectual Property, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The federal structure of the U.S. government presents interesting questions for intellectual property. Which government, national or state, exercises regulatory authority? Or do both governments play a significant role? Questions of this order cannot be addressed unless one first analyzes what the term "intellectual property" comprehends. Intellectual property includes well-recognized regimes of exclusive rights in inventions (patents), literary, artistic and musical creations (copyrights), and trademarks. But it also covers more elusive, and evolving, interests, such as exploitation of one's personal name and image (right of publicity), trade secrets, and a generalized concern with prevention of acts amounting to unlicensed appropriation …

Putting Cars On The "Information Superhighway": Authors, Exploiters, And Copyright In Cyberspace, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The advent of the "Information Superhighway" has sparked much speculation about the roles of authorship, of readership, and of literary property in the vast system of interlinked computer networks that has come to be known as "cyberspace." Through computers linked to a digital network, users can access and add to vast quantities of material. At least in theory, every computer user can become his, or her own publisher, and every terminal can become a library, bookstore, or audio and video jukebox.

The prospect of pervasive audience access to and ability to copy and further disseminate works of authorship challenges the …

Global Use/Territorial Rights: Private International Law Questions Of The Global Information Infrastructure, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In the private international law of intellectual property, and particularly of literary and artistic property, the basic principle is territoriality. Each country provides for its own regime of protection of works of authorship. The Berne Convention for the Protection and Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention oblige their members to respect the rule of national treatment, that is, of non discrimination between domestic and foreign works from member countries. This rule reinforces the principle of territoriality, for it confirms the role of local copyright laws, by requiring that local law apply equally to the protection of local …

Exploiting The Artist's Commercial Identity: The Merchandizing Of Art Images, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

"Merchandizing properties" are not a recent arrival on the copyright and trademark scene. As early as the 1930s, the Walt Disney Company foresaw the substantial economic gains from licensing the images of its animated motion picture characters in a variety of consumer media, from publications, to soft toys, clothing and household items. Most recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization has prepared a substantial comparative law study of "Character Merchandising." The merchandizing of fine arts images, however, is a more recent development, and is one that has so far received less attention from academic commentators. This article offers some preliminary observations, …

Surveying The Borders Of Copyright, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The copyright course I teach at Columbia Law School begins with a survey of what copyright is not: it is not a patent, a trademark, or an object of physical property. Nor, as the course examines a little later on, does copyright protect every object of economic value whose worth might be further enhanced were it to be shielded from unauthorized copying. However, the frontiers between copyright and mere commercial value have never been well defined. Not only may the same item be simultaneously the object of copyright and of other legal rights, but copyright increasingly covers – or is …