Law Commons^™

Liability For Providing Hyperlinks To Copyright-Infringing Content: International And Comparative Law Perspectives, Jane C. Ginsburg, Luke Ali Budiardjo

Faculty Scholarship

Hyperlinking, at once an essential means of navigating the Internet, but also a frequent means to enable infringement of copyright, challenges courts to articulate the legal norms that underpin domestic and international copyright law, in order to ensure effective enforcement of exclusive rights on the one hand, while preserving open communication on the Internet on the other. Several recent cases, primarily in the European Union, demonstrate the difficulties of enforcing the right of communication to the public (or, in U.S. copyright parlance, the right of public performance by transmission) against those who provide hyperlinks that effectively deliver infringing content to …

Intellectual Property As Seen By Barbie And Mickey: The Reciprocal Relationship Of Copyright And Trademark Law, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Some years ago, caselaw on trademark parodies and similar unauthorized “speech” uses of trademarks could have led one to conclude that the law had no sense of humor. Over time, however, courts in the US and elsewhere began to leaven likelihood of confusion analyses with healthy skepticism regarding consumers’ alleged inability to perceive a joke. These decisions did not always expressly cite the copyright fair use defense, but the considerations underlying the copyright doctrine seemed to inform trademark analysis as well. The spillover effect may indeed have been inevitable, as several of the cases in which the fair use defense …

Why A Monkey’S Action Of Taking A Selfie Should Expand The Definition Of An Author In The Copyright Act, David Schneider

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Copyright As Market Prospect, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Faculty Scholarship

For many decades now, copyright jurisprudence and scholarship have looked to the common law of torts – principally trespass and negligence – in order to understand copyright’s structure of entitlement and liability. This focus on property – and harm-based torts – has altogether ignored an area of tort law with significant import for our understanding of copyright law: tortious interference with a prospective economic advantage. This Article develops an understanding of copyright law using tortious interference with a prospect as a homology. Tortious interference with a prospect allows a plaintiff to recover when a defendant’s volitional actions interfere with a …

Piracy, Policy, And Pandora: Outdated Copyright In A Digital World, Stephanie Caress

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project examines how current copyright laws and digital distribution practices in music can be improved for both the creator and the consumer. The laws that govern our digital atmosphere, and thus a large portion of music distribution, are outdated and cause a wide variety of problems for both artists and fans. To create a comprehensive picture and establish the scope of this problem, I start by outlining the process a song goes through from when it is written to when it is in the hands, or rather ears, of listeners. From there, copyright laws are entwined with this process. …

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

Maine Law Review

The recent coincidence of new technology and new legislation in the United States may have enhanced the ability of U.S. copyright owners to wield electronic protective measures to control the exploitation of their works. The legislation, which reinforces the technology, has led many to perceive and to deplore a resulting imbalance between copyright owners and the copyright-using public. Critics assert that the goals of copyright law have never been, and should not now become, to grant “control” over works of authorship. Instead, copyright should accord certain limited rights over some kinds of exploitations. Economic incentives to create may be needed …

How The Supreme Court Ignored The Lesson Of Zeran And Screwed Up Copyright Law On The Internet, Roger Allan Ford

Law Faculty Scholarship

This short essay, prepared for a retrospective organized by Eric Goldman and Jeff Kosseff on the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Zeran v. AOL, argues that the Supreme Court failed to learn the lesson of that foundational case, with adverse consequences for copyright law on the internet.

Assigning Infringement Claims: Silvers V. Sony Pictures, Heather B. Sanborn

Maine Law Review

The Copyright Act establishes protection for original, creative works of authorship as a means of providing ex ante incentives for creativity. But how real is that protection? Imagine that you have written a script and managed to have your play produced in a local community theater. A few years later, you find that a major Hollywood studio has taken your script, adapted it slightly, and made it into the next summer blockbuster, raking in millions without ever obtaining a license from you. Of course, you can sue them for infringement. But how much will that litigation cost and what are …

Book Review: Choreographing Copyright: Race, Gender, And Intellectual Property Rights In American Dance By Anthea Kraut, Carys Craig

Articles & Book Chapters

Dance may be one of the world’s oldest art forms, but it is a relatively recent entrant into the sphere of copyright law—and remains something of an afterthought amongst copyright lawyers and scholars alike. For copyright scholars, at least, that should change with the publication of Anthea Kraut’s CHOREOGRAPHING COPYRIGHT: RACE, GENDER, AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN AMERICAN DANCE. Kraut performs a fascinating exploration of the evolution of choreographic copyright—sweeping, political, polemical—that should leave no one in doubt as to the normative significance of choreography as a subject matter of copyright law and policy. Nor should doubt remain as to …

Honest Copying Practices, Joseph P. Fishman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

One of intellectual property theory’s operating assumptions is that creating is hard while copying is easy. But it is not always so. Copies, though outwardly identical, can come from different processes, from cheap digital duplication to laborious handmade re-creation. Policymakers around the world face a choice whether such distinctions should affect liability. The two branches of intellectual property that condition liability on actual copying, copyright and trade secrecy, give different answers. Both in the United States and elsewhere, trade secrecy regimes distinguish between copying methods deemed illegitimate and those deemed legitimate, what international treaties call “honest commercial practices.” Copyright regimes, …

Three Strikes For Copyright, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

How should copyright law change to take account of the internet? Should copyright expand to plug the internet’s leakiness and protect content that the internet would otherwise make more freely available? Or, should copyright relax its strict liability regime given diverse and productive reuses in the internet age and the benefits networked diffusion provides users and second-generation creators? Answering these questions depends on what we think copyright is for and how it is used and confronted by creators and audiences. In a new article studying these questions in the very focused setting of Wikipedia articles about baseball and baseball players …

The Liberty To Copy Unpatented Inventions, Boston University, Wendy J. Gordon

BU Law Presentations

Poster for Wendy Gordon's 2017 University Lecture

The Struggle Over Webcasting--Where Is The Stream Carrying Us?, Susan A. Russell

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Dastar V. Twentieth Century Fox--One Can't Get Back By Trademark What One Gave Up Under Copyright, Sue Mota

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Piracy On Peer-To-Peer File Sharing Networks: Why A Streamlined Online Dispute Resolution System Should Not Be Forgotten In The Shadow Of A Federal Small Claims Tribunal, Naomi Gemmell

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This Article proposes application of an ADR system for resolving online copyright disputes related to P2P file sharing. Section II provides an overview of P2P file sharing networks and associated copyright infringement. Section III explores current approaches that fall short in resolving P2P copyright disputes, namely the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, litigation, and private agreements. Section IV examines the two primary proposed solutions to online copyright disputes: alternative dispute resolution and federal small claims. Section V recommends that a streamlined online dispute resolution system is necessary (even if a federal small claims tribunal is adopted), and concludes.

The Quandary Of Being Interactive: The Impact Of Arista Records V. Launch Media On The Viability Of Webcasting Services, Todd E. Saucedo

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Trademark Boundaries And 3d Printing, Lucas S. Osborn

Akron Law Review

3D printing technology promises to disrupt trademark law at the same time that trademark law and policy sustain repeated criticism. The controversial growth of trademark law over the last century has yielded amorphous sponsorship and affiliation confusion issues and empirically fragile post-sale and initial-interest confusion theories, among others. Into this melee marches 3D printing technology, which dissociates the process of design from that of manufacturing and democratizes manufacturing. Rather than being embodied only in physical objects, design is embodied in digital CAD files that users can post and sell on the internet. The digitization of physical objects raises fundamental questions …

Redefining The Intended Copyright Infringer, Yvette Joy Liebesman

Akron Law Review

The contemporary copyright infringer is pretty much anyone who can get caught. Yet, who could be caught back when the Copyright Act of 1976 was enacted is just a subset of those who can be caught today—we had very different concepts about who was the intended target of an infringement action than who fits into that mold today. The advent and growth of cyberspace communication now makes it both easier to infringe and for IP owners, with very little effort, to capture infringers. The ability of individuals to both easily infringe and easily be found infringing has altered the IP …

Copyright Easements, Jason Mazzone

Akron Law Review

When authors assign the copyright in their work to publishers, some productive uses of the work are impeded. The author loses opportunities to use or to authorize others to use the work unless the publisher consents; the publisher does not permit all uses of the work that the author would like or that would benefit a consuming audience. Copyright easements can solve the problem. Under a system of copyright easements, an easement holder would have designated rights in a creative work that would permit uses of the work that would ordinarily require permission of the copyright owner. If the author …

E-Sports: More Than Just A Fad, Michael Mctee

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Post-Myriad Genetics Copyright Of Synthetic Biology And Living Media, Michael D. Murray

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Bridgemen Art Library, Ltd. V. Corel Corporation Revisited: Authors Guild V. Hathitrust And The New Frontier Of Fair Use, Caitlin A. Buxton

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

A Picture's Worth: The Future Of Copyright Protection Of User-Generated Images On Social Media, Elizabeth Tao

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In the current digital age, the internet is teeming with personal websites and social media posts. As more people around the world are becoming and staying connected to the internet, more stories and photos are sharing over social networking sites each second. Social media presents a ubiquitous platform to share one's life with others, but this accessibility comes at a price. This Note examines the history and present state of copyright law, within the framework of photography, to highlight the gaps within these laws as applied to personal works of art, like personal photographs, posted to social media sites. Social …

The Right-Based View Of The Cathedral: Liability Rules And Corrective Justice, Omri Rachum-Twaig, Ohad Somech

Pepperdine Law Review

In their celebrated paper, Calabresi and Melamed offered a framework, often referred to as the ‘‘Cathedral’’ analysis, which explains when and why entitlements should be protected using two main sets of rules—property rules and liability rules. This framework is now widely used to explain some private law doctrines. However, cases that are easily explained as applications of liability rules are usually difficult to explain under the private law theory of correlative corrective justice. This is because the basic idea underlying corrective justice conflicts with the notion of rules that allow the nonconsensual property appropriation subject to compensation. In this Article, …

Consent Decrees In The Streaming Era: Digital Withdrawal, Fractional Licensing, And § 114(I), Steven J. Gagliano

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

Clear disagreement exists about how best to reconcile the copyright protections afforded to songwriters with the antitrust considerations protecting consumers. Songwriter public performance royalty collections account for over $2 billion in annual U.S. revenue, roughly 90% of which is collected by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). ASCAP and BMI are performance rights organizations (PROs) regulated by seventy-five-year-old consent decrees. After the Second Circuit determined that these consent decrees prohibit music publishers from selectively withdrawing their new media rights from ASCAP and BMI to directly negotiating with new media services, the PROs …

A Copyright Board For Canada At 150, Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Law Publications

Recognition and protection of the role of copyright in Canadian society goes back as far as Confederation. But just as the need to pursue the appropriate balances among competing values is a constant part of our nation-building, so too is the need to occasionally re-examine and rebalance interests related to copyright.

When Copyright Is Not Enough: Deconstructing Why, As The Modern Music Industry Takes, Musicians Continue To Make, Glenton Davis

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Copyright Owners' Putative Interests In Privacy, Reputation, And Control: A Reply To Goold, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

My own view is that Goold overstates the explanatory role of tort law. But even were that not the case, the courts need to reach some kind of “settled” understanding on these various interests before a cause of action is created or definitively rejected, and that no such consensus on the three matters mentioned yet exists, whether they are viewed as forms of tort or otherwise. Goold’s work may nevertheless be an important step toward reaching closure on these and other open questions in copyright law.

"The Engine Of Free Expression": The Political Economy Of Copyright In The Colonial British Atlantic And Early National United States, Nora Slonimsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1985, the Supreme Court of the United States concluded that copyright was included in the Constitution in order to serve as the “engine of free expression.” By providing economic incentive to drive artistic and scientific innovation, the nation received essential information and other tools of learning necessary to make sound political decisions. However, transnational copyright disputes, then and now, frequently resulted in complex and often contradictory understandings of free expression. The formation of copyright in America was thus a far more complex story, and it is that story that forms the basis of this project.

Amidst the many moving …

Looking Into Pandora's Box: The Content Of Sci-Hub And Its Usage, Bastian Greshake

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Despite the growth of Open Access, potentially illegally circumventing paywalls to access scholarly publications is becoming a more mainstream phenomenon. The web service Sci-Hub is amongst the biggest facilitators of this, offering free access to around 62 million publications. So far it is not well studied how and why its users are accessing publications through Sci-Hub. By utilizing the recently released corpus of Sci-Hub and comparing it to the data of ~28 million downloads done through the service, this study tries to address some of these questions. The comparative analysis shows that both the usage and complete corpus is largely …