Law Commons^™

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 …

The New Technology Transfer Block Exemption: Will The New Block Exemption Balance The Goals Of Innovation And Competition?, Maurits Dolmans, Anu Bradford

Faculty Scholarship

Licensors and licensees have long enjoyed the benefit of block exemption regulations for technology licensing. Block exemption regulations were adopted in the mid-80s for patent licensing and know-how licenses. These were combined and replaced in 1996 by a unified Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBE). This block exemption is currently under review.

DG Competition is writing a draft for a new T'BE. It is expected to be ready for review by the member states in September, and to be published for comments in October. The Commission hopes to have the new block exemption adopted and published in the first quarter …

The Proposed New Technology Transfer Block Exemption: Is Europe Really Better Off Than With The Current Regulation?, Maurits Dolmans, Anu Bradford

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the legal and economic foundations, as well as the practical implications of the Commission's proposal for a new technology transfer block exemption regulation ("TTBER'') and associated Guidelines.

The article concludes that the new TTBER brings desirable flexibility to the assessment of the competitive effects of technology licensing agreements by abolishing the current division of the clauses into four categories of exempted, white, black and grey clauses. The Commission's proposal is also praised for extending the scope of the Regulation to software copyright licences and for exempting some efficiency-enhancing restrictions that currently fall outside of the TTBER. The …

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 …

Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

Communications regulators over the next decade will spend increasing time on conflicts between the private interests of broadband providers and the public's interest in a competitive innovation environment centered on the Internet. As the policy questions this conflict raises are basic to communications policy, they are likely to reappear in many different forms. So far, the first major appearance has come in the "open access" (or "multiple access") debate, over the desirability of allowing vertical integration between Internet Service Providers and cable operators. Proponents of open access see it as a structural remedy to guard against an erosion of the …

When Code Isn't Law, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

When the Supreme Court upheld extended copyright terms in Eldred v. Ascroft, many Internet activists called for renewed political action in the form of appeals to Congress or even a campaign to amend the Constitution. But others suggested a very different course: They argued that it would be wiser to forgo institutions controlled by the powers of the past, and to return instead to the keyboard to write the next generation of "lawbusting" code. In the words of one observer, "tech people are probably better off spending their energy writing code than being part of the political process" because …

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 …