Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

When Is A Cd Factory Not Like A Dance Hall?: The Difficulty Of Establishing Third-Party Liability For Infringing Digital Music Samples, Rebecca Morris

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Software As Discourse: The Power Of Intellectual Property In Digital Architecture, Brian F. Fitzgerald

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

As software increasingly facilitates our living, we are drawn more and more to conceptualize software as discourse. While this may sound trite, it is a fundamental point to appreciate.

One of the most significant intellectual developments of the latter part of the twentieth century has been the poststrucoturalist writing of thinkers like Foucault, Derrida, and Baudril-lard, who explain the multitude of power relationships we experience in our daily lives, the indeterminacy of law, the construction of meaning, and the role of language, or discourse, in the construction of meaning and identity. According to the post-structuralists, we live in an environment …

License To Copyright: The Ongoing Dispute Over The Ownership Of James Bond, Keith Poliakoff

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Innovation And Creativity In The Fine Arts: The Relevance And Irrelevance Of Copyright, Daniel J. Gifford

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Implied Limits On The Legislative Power: The Intellectual Property Clause As An Absolute Constraint On Congress, Paul J. Heald, Suzanna Sherry

Scholarly Works

Professors Heald and Sherry argue that the language of Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, the Intellectual Property Clause, absolutely constrains Congress's legislative power under certain circumstances. Their analysis begins by looking at other limits on the legislative power that the Court has found in the Bankruptcy Clause, the Eleventh Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, and Article III. Then by examining the history and structure of the Intellectual Property Clause and relevant precedent, they distill four principles of constitutional weight--the Suspect Grant Principle, the Quid Pro Quo Principle, the Authorship Principle, and the Public Domain Principle. These principles inform the Court's …

Why Urofsky V. Gilmore Still Fails To Satisfy, Michael D. Hancock

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit appears to have adopted the rule that any speech uttered by a governmental employee, in the course of performing the work for which the employee was hired, is per se not a "matter of public concern." A majority of the court relies on its holdings in DiMeglio v. Haines and Boring v. Buncombe Co. Bd. of Educ. for that proposition. That fact was evident in questioning from the en banc panel of the Fourth Circuit during its rehearing of Urofsky v. Gilmore on October 25, 1999. At issue was the …

Letter From The Editor, Lisa Taylor Hudson

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Welcome to the fourth issue of The Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. By now, we have all emerged from the "Y2K Crisis" unscathed. In fact, for many, the advent of the new year and new millennium was utterly uneventful technologically. However, this new year is not without its own fanfare for The Journal, for 2000 marks the first time this law review has published a fourth issue in a single academic term. Furthermore, we are even entrenched in the publication process for a fifth issue already. We continue to work hard to produce these timely, insightful, and scholarly publications, …

Letter From The Editor, Lisa Taylor Hudson, Dharmesh S. Vashee

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Welcome to the fifth issue of The Richmond Journal of Law & Technology! This issue represents a watershed experience for JOLT, as this is the first time we have published more than three issues in a single year! The timing of this issue's publication is also significant because on April 5, 2000, we will celebrate the fifth birthday of our journal. As the oldest exclusively online law review in the U.S., we continue to enjoy our leadership role in the publication of academic pieces dedicated to the marriage of law and technology.

Metatags: Seeking To Evade User Detection And The Lanham Act, Terrell W. Mills

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

You hop on the World Wide Web ready to do some Internet surfing. You decide to check the scores from last night's football game. You head to your favorite search engine and then pause . . . "where will the scores be" you ask yourself. You decide upon ESPN, because you know they have it all when it comes to sports. So, you type in ESPN and click on the "SEARCH" button. You eagerly await the return of the results to head out to the ESPN homepage to find out if your alma mater beat the in-state rival in the …

Opening Up To Open Source, Shawn W. Parker

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The latest "revolution" in the software industry has nothing to do with breakthrough technology; the revolution is a rethinking of how software technology is held, developed, and distributed. The revolution is called "open source," although it has also been called "freeware," and "copyleft." Each term generically describes the movement, yet implies wildly different ideas to the developers, distributors, and users inside the open source community. Open source is not a company, but rather, a community; projects are established and programmers communicate and contribute software building blocks to each other via the Internet. When a software program is completed by this …

Update: Riaa V. Diamond Multimedia Systems - Napster And Mp3.Com, Jayne A. Pemberton A. Pemberton

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

After the Recording Industry Association of America's ("RIAA") attack on the Diamond Rio proved unsuccessful, the music industry turned its attention to the companies enabling reproduction of copyrighted music. Two important cases appeared after the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Diamond Rio was not infringing on copyrights. These cases, A&M Records, Inc. et al. v. Napster, Inc. and UMG, Inc., et. al. v. MP3.com, Inc., will shape computer technology's effect on American copyright law. This update will discuss these two cases and give brief overviews of the courts' findings and conclusions. These findings will …

Ucita: The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, Michael J. Lockerby

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

From the heated rhetoric of both proponents and opponents of UCITA, one would think that UCITA represented a radical change from current law. From the standpoint of this practitioner, however, UCITA represents more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary change in the law. In at least three critical areas, the enforceability of "paperless contracts," dispute resolution, and "self-help" remedies, UCITA is arguably consistent with current law or at least the trend of current law. Indeed, the main inconsistency between UCITA and current law is that current law is at times inconsistent. From the standpoint of most businesses, certainty is preferable …

A Circus Among The Circuits: Would The Truly Famous And Diluted Performer Please Stand Up? The Federal Trademark Dilution Act And Its Challenges, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

Sometimes, nothing is more painful than the truth. Congress passed the celebrated Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 (“the Act” or the “Dilution Act”) with great hope that it would create a uniform anti-dilution law, end forum shopping, and encourage trademark owners to build brand equity with more ease. Congress was overwhelmingly in favor the Act, and thus passed it with little debate, leaving behind a sparse congressional record. In its haste to pass the Act, Congress failed to address whether the Act extends to product design marks; whether the Act requires proof of actual economic harm, or if likelihood …

The Desirability Of Agreeing To Disagree: The Wto, Trips, International Ipr Exhaustion And A Few Other Things, Vincent Chiappetta

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article proposes a procedural and substantive approach specifically designed to achieve this result. Concerning process, interim national and regional decisionmaking and the multilateral debate must expressly broaden and clarify the values and interests at stake. Three basic operational principles advance this objective. First, comparisons based on IPR labels (patent, copyright, and the like) confuse rather than illuminate. Instead, focus must be on the actual underlying policy justifications and objectives. Second, the full range of implicated justifications (economic and otherwise), including those outside the decision-makers' own norms, must be expressly identified and considered. Finally, any position taken or decision reached …

Enforcement Against Counterfeiting In The People's Republic Of China, Daniel C.K. Chow

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Although the discussion in this Article is limited to counterfeiting in China, many of the issues discussed are endemic to the Chinese legal system as a whole, and apply also to other intellectual property rights, such as copyright piracy and patent infringements. Moreover, many of the themes raised in this Article also illuminate the current state of the nascent Chinese legal system as a whole and how its capacity is tested as it continues the struggle to keep pace with China's many economic reforms and accompanying social changes. Part I of this Article begins with a review of the enforcement …

Cultivating The Genetic Commons: Imperfect Patent Protection And The Network Model Of Innovation, Jonathan M. Barnett

San Diego Law Review

This Article enters this debate and argues the following position. Assuming that antitrust authorities persist in certain strategies to impede patent consolidation, the recent introduction of patent rights for certain biotechnological innovations is likely to encourage private investment in the genetic commons and reduce (or, at least, not enhance) the accessibility costs that could stunt technological advance. To reach this conclusion, this Article shows that the two leading theories of patent protection, the "incentive" theory7 and the "prospect" theory,8 do not explain private industry's willingness to sink significant investment capital into highly uncertain biopharmaceutical projects. These theories offer insufficient explanations …

Combating Copyright Infringement In Russia: A Comprehensive Approach For Western Plaintiffs, David E. Miller

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article addresses several measures that U.S. and European firms can undertake to combat copyright infringing activities in Russia. First, the Article attempts to dispel the notion that Russian law and the Russian government are inadequate to deal with copyright and piracy problems. In fact, recent surveys suggest that foreign plaintffs have achieved some success in arbitrazh courts. Furthermore, Russian authorities have begun to take steps to ensure that these decisions will be enforced.

Second, the Author suggests that the United States and European nations can apply pressure on the Russian Federation to ensure compliance with copyright laws in the …

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 …

Resolving Tensions Between Copyright And The Internet, Walter Effross

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Conflicts Between U.S. Law And International Treaties Concerning Geographical Indications, Christine Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

It should not be surprising that the United States is not a major proponent of the protection of geographical indications. Countries that stand to benefit the most from this protection are those that have a long history of traditional industries, such as many European countries. These historical differences may help explain the stance that the United States has taken with regard to the protection of geographical indications, as compared to its stance towards other intellectual property rights negotiated in TRIPs Agreement. But the inability of the U.S. to benefit to the same extent as European countries, because of its apparent …

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act And Library Liability, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

On Courts Herding Cats: Contending With The "Written Description" Requirement (And Other Unruly Patent Disclosure Doctrines), Mark D. Janis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Copyright And The Perfect Curve, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay argues that the assumption that “progress” is qualitatively independent of the underlying entitlement structure is wrong. In particular, I shall argue that a shift to a copyright rule structure based on highly granular, contractually enforced “price discrimination” would work a fundamental shift, as well, in the nature of the progress produced. The critique of the contractual price discrimination model, moreover, exposes deep defects in the use of neoclassical “law and economics” methodology to solve problems relating to the incentive structure of copyright law. What is needed, instead, is an economic model of copyright that acknowledges the central role …

Examined Lives: Informational Privacy And The Subject As Object, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the United States, proposals for informational privacy have proved enormously controversial. On a political level, such proposals threaten powerful data processing interests. On a theoretical level, data processors and other data privacy opponents argue that imposing restrictions on the collection, use, and exchange of personal data would ignore established understandings of property, limit individual freedom of choice, violate principles of rational information use, and infringe data processors' freedom of speech. In this article, Professor Julie Cohen explores these theoretical challenges to informational privacy protection. She concludes that categorical arguments from property, choice, truth, and speech lack weight, and mask …

Copyright As A Model For Free Speech Law: What Copyright Has In Common With Anti-Pornography Laws, Campaign Finance Reform, And Telecommunications Regulation, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Copyright raises real and troubling free speech issues, and standard responses to those concerns are inadequate. This Article aims to put copyright in the context of other free speech doctrine. Acknowledging the link between copyright and free speech can help determine the proper contours of a copyright regime that both allows and limits property rights in expression, skewing the content of speech toward change.

Online Service Provider Copyright Liability: Is The Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Answer?, Justin Williamson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cruel, Mean, Or Lavish? Economic Analysis, Price Discrimination And Digital Intellectual Property, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The United States' Doctrine Of Exhaustion: Parallel Imports Of Patented Goods, Margreth Barrett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Development Of Arbitration In The Resolution Of Internet Domain Name Disputes, Christopher S. Lee

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Web surfers who use the AltaVista Internet search engine may not realize that in 1998, Compaq Computer Corporation paid $3.3 million for the rights to the domain name AltaVista.com. A year later, eCompanies paid $7.5 million for the domain name business.com. And in February of 2000, Bank of America paid $3 million for the domain name loans.com. These transactions demonstrate that the ownership, transfer, and control of Internet domain names is a multi-million dollar industry.

The Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (Ucita): Still Not Ready For Prime Time, James S. Heller

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In July, 1999, the General Counsels, Vice Presidents, and other senior officers of major information industry technology companies (including Adobe Systems, Intuit, Silver Platter, Lotus, and Microsoft) wrote to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) urging adoption of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) at the then imminent NCCUSL meeting in Denver. The executives supported the adoption of UCITA because it is true to three commercial principles: commerce should be free to flourish in the electronic age, rules should support use of new (in this case electronic) technologies, and marketplace forces should determine the form …