Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Aals Speech, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Marshall has also said I can speak as long as I want, so scream when you've had enough.

Does A Copyright Coowner's Duty To Account Arise Under Federal Law?, Craig Y. Allison

Michigan Law Review

This Note discusses both the source of the accounting rule and the proper forum for applying the rule. Part I provides a general history of joint ownership and the duty to account and suggests that the number of litigants presenting joint ownership claims will probably increase. Part II discusses joint ownership case law chronologically. This Part shows that the case law is consistent with the view that the duty to account was a creation of the federal courts. Part III argues that the accounting rule is federal common law and that federal jurisdiction necessarily follows for all copyright accounting cases. …

The Nature Of Copyright: A Law Of Users' Rights, Lydia Pallas Loren

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Nature of Copyright: A Law of Users' Rights by L. Ray Patterson and Stanley W. Lindberg

U.S.-Thailand Trade Disputes: Applying Section 301 To Cigarettes And Itellectual Property, Ted L. Mcdorman

Michigan Journal of International Law

Irrespective of the close economic and strategic relationship between Thailand and the United States, the United States has utilized Section 301 (and Special 301), and the consequent threat of trade retaliation, in its relations with the Land of Smiles. The purpose of this article is to examine the operation of Section 301 and Special 301 regarding trade in cigarettes and intellectual property.

Reproduction Of Protected Works For University Research Or Teaching, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The new means of reproduction for teaching and research – photocopying, downloading, optical scanning – present special challenges to intellectual property teachers. As researchers and educators, we may rejoice at the vastly enhanced access these technologies afford to an enormous, and ever-growing, diversity of materials. The convenience of the photocopier is well-known. Digital media will accelerate production and dissemination of copies. Not only will computers, scanners and facsimile machines make it easier and faster to copy, but they will facilitate the dispersal of copies to all points of the globe.

As scholars of intellectual property, we may be concerned about …

Computer Programs In Europe: A Comparative Analysis Of The 1991 Ec Software Directive, Jerome Huet, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Long awaited – if not feared – in the computer industry, where its elaboration had evoked heated debate, the European Council Directive of May 14, 1991 on the Legal Protection of Computer Programs (the "Directive" or "Software Directive")has imposed common principles of copyright protection on the twelve Member States of the European Community (the "EC", the "Community"). As it declares in its preamble, the Directive responds to the need to ensure the proper functioning of a single marketand, to that end, to eliminate man), of the current differences among the Member States' legal systems.

In the domain of European copyright …

No "Sweat"? Copyright And Other Protection Of Works Of Information After Feist V. Rural Telephone, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision last Term in Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. proscribed copyright protection for works of information that fail to manifest a modicum of creative originality in selection or arrangement. Discarding a long – if lately uneasy – tradition of U.S. copyright coverage of informational works that display far greater industriousness than imagination, the Court ruled that copyright does not secure the "sweat of the brow" or the investment of resources in the compilation of a work of information. The Court thus stripped away or sharply reduced the copyright protection afforded a variety …

Copyright As Myth, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

It has become fashionable to seek to formulate, or reformulate, copyright law as an expression of overarching grand theory. Perhaps the most prominent manifestation of this trend has been the recasting of copyright law in the mold of economic incentives; a more recent upstart competitor seeks to reclaim the debate by invoking the philosophical precepts of Hohfeld, Hegel and Locke. Occasionally, the literature gives us polite debates about which of the competing theoretical models is more misguided. Meanwhile, another voice in the copyright literature has been complaining that the law is remarkably unaccommodating of the actual process of creating works …

Authors And Exploitations In International Private Law: The French Supreme Court And The Huston Film Colorization Controversy, Jane C. Ginsburg, Pierre Sirinelli

Faculty Scholarship

On May 28, 1991, France's Supreme Court, the Cour de cassation, rendered its long-awaited decision in Huston v. la Cinq, a controversy that opposed the heirs of film director John Huston against the French television station Channel 5 and its licensor, Turner Entertainment. Defendants sought to broadcast a colorized version of Huston's black and white film classic, The Asphalt jungle. Plaintiffs, John Huston's children and Ben Maddow, who collaborated with Huston on the film's screenplay, asserted that broadcast of a colorized version violated Huston's and Maddow's moral right of integrity in the motion picture. The central question before the Cour …

Copyright, Computer Software, And Work Made For Hire, Matthew R. Harris

Michigan Law Review

Prior to the Supreme Court's 1989 decision in Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, the Circuits had disagreed over the question of whether independent contractors could qualify as "employees" under the doctrine. The Fifth, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits defined "employee" narrowly, thereby excluding the majority of commissioned works from potential work for hire status. Applying a much broader definition of the term, the Second and Seventh Circuits included virtually all commissioned works as work for hire. The disagreement was not surprising, since the copyright statute does not include a definition of the term, and the legislative history fails to …

Copyright Law And The Myth Of Objectivity: The Idea-Expression Dichotomy And The Inevitability Of Artistic Value Judgments, Amy B. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

ThIs Article focuses on the problem of how artistic values affect determinatlons of copyright management. It discusses how the copyright statutes embody a congressional desire to have determinations of eligibility for copyright made without regard for the artistic value of the work at issue. This Article also explores the dangers that Justice Holmes and those who have followed hIs lead saw in using assessments of artIstic value to make copyright decIsIons. It also discusses how assessments of artistic value influence copyright infrIngement determInations, specifically through the application of the idea-expression dichotomy, a principle used to determine whether the copyright in …

International Copyright From An American Perspective, Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Public Domain, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

This article examines the public domain by looking at the gulf between what authors really do and the way the law perceives them. Part I outlines the basics of copyright as a species of property and introduces the public domain's place within the copyright scheme. Copyright grants authors" ' rights modeled on real property in order to encourage authorship by providing authors with markets in which they can seek compensation for their creations. Because parcels of authorship are intangible, however, the law faces *problems in determining the ownership and boundaries of its property grants. In particular, the concept of "originality," …

A Tale Of Two Copyrights: Literary Property In Revolutionary France And America, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The French and U.S. copyright systems are well known as opposites. The product of the French Revolution, French copyright law is said to enshrine the author: exclusive rights flow from one's (preferred) status as a creator. For example, a leading French copyright scholar states that one of the "fundamental ideas" of the revolutionary copyright laws is the principle that "an exclusive right is conferred on authors because their property is the most justified since it flows from their intellectual creation." By contrast, the U.S. Constitution's copyright clause, echoing the English Statute of Anne, makes the public's interest equal, if not …

Copyright In The 101st Congress: Commentary On The Visual Artists Rights Act And The Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act Of 1990, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In the Visual Artists Rights Act, Congress has for the first time included moral rights within the U.S. copyright statute. Well-known in continental European copyright doctrine, and secured by the Berne Convention, moral rights afford protection for the author's personal, non-economic interests in receiving attribution for her work, and in preserving the work in the form in which it was created, even after its sale or licensing. These rights of attribution (sometimes infelicitously labeled the "right of paternity") and of integrity are conceptually distinct from the economic rights of exploitation set forth in section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act. …

Creation And Commercial Value: Copyright Protection Of Works Of Information, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In 1899, Augustine Birrell, a Victorian barrister, lamented: "The question of copyright has, in these latter days, with so many other things, descended into the market-place, and joined the wrangle of contending interests and rival greedinesses." Birrell's remark conveys distaste for those authors who would "realise the commercial value of their wares." But the question of copyright has always been joined with that of commercial value. Indeed, by affording authors limited monopoly protection for their writings, our Constitution relies on wrangling greed to promote the advancement of both creativity and profit. Nonetheless, the distinction Birrell implies between copyrightworthy works of …

The Distribution Right In The United States Of America: Review And Reflections, John M. Kernochan

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Essay on the distribution right considers the possibility and the merits of three options now widely discussed. These are: (a) ex-tending the reach of an old right, the right of reproduction, to include the currently debated "droit de destination," or (b) broadening the right of distribution in nations that have such a right by cutting back on the"first sale doctrine"' and other limitations on that right, and (c) giving authors broad control over use of their work. All of these approaches aim to make authors' rights more substantial and effective to achieve their purpose amid the erosions resulting from …

Copyright Legislation And Technological Change, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

Throughout its history, copyright law has had difficulty accommodating technological change. Although the substance of copyright legislation in this century has evolved from meetings among industry representatives whose avowed purpose was to draft legislation that provided for the future,6 the resulting statutes have done so poorly. The language of copyright statutes has been phrased in fact-specific language that has grown obsolete as new modes and mediums of copyrightable expression have developed. Whatever copyright statute has been on the books has been routinely, and justifiably, criticized as outmoded.7 In this Article, I suggest that the nature of the legislative process we …

Book Review. Copyright For The Eighties: Cases And Materials, 2d Ed., Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Performer's Rights And Digital Sampling Under U.S. And Japanese Law, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

A year or two ago, one of my copyright students called to my attention a problem that seemed to him to pose unique difficulties for the copyright statute. The problem arises because of a technology called digital sampling.' Digital sampling is a new threat to performers' rights that has grown out of the combination of digital recording technology with music synthesizer technology. This threat is a very recent one. Indeed, the digital sampling problem is so new that copyright lawyers haven't yet figured out how to think about it.

One Hundred And Two Years Later: The U.S. Joins The Berne Convention, Jane C. Ginsburg, John M. Kernochan

Faculty Scholarship

In historic votes on October 5 and October 12, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation designed to bring U.S. law into compliance with the Berne Convention. The legislation was signed by President Reagan on October 31, 1988. Also signed by the President was a Senate Resolution of October 20 of Ratification of the Berne Convention. Following deposit of the requisite instruments with the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, U.S. adherence to Berne took effect on March 1, 1989.

For the U.S., this momentous step is the culmination of decades of struggle, including many failed attempts …

Colors In Conflicts: Moral Rights And The Foreign Exploitation Of Colorized U.S. Motion Pictures, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores an international aspect of the current debate over colorized motion pictures. Under the present U.S. copyright law, most film directors and other creative contributors to an audiovisual work are unlikely to obtain injunctive relief from a U.S. court against the exhibition or dissemination of color-encoded versions of black and white originals. The difficulty is not simply that the U.S. copyright law does not recognize a specific moral right of integrity independent of economic rights. The director's poor domestic prospects are largely due to U.S. copyright law's work-made-for-hire doctrine. Most contributors to an audiovisual work are employees for …

Copyright Law: Cases And Materials, Marshall A. Leaffer

Vanderbilt Law Review

Interest in copyright law is on the upswing. The reason is simple: copyright law, and more generally, intellectual property law, is the law for the information age. The subject touches not only the traditional concerns of artists, writers, and musicians, but also reaches the cable television and computer industries as well as future technologies not yet thought of. I predict course offerings on copyright and intellectual property law will proliferate. Before publication of Craig Joyce's Copyright Law, the growing market for copyright casebooks was already well served by three excellent and diverse works' that would satisfy all tastes and approaches …

Recognition Of Proprietary Interests In Software In Korea: Programming For Comprehensive Reform, Byoung Kook Min, Gary Sullivan

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will review the legal environment and major issues concerning software protection in the Republic of Korea, and will describe the existing applicable laws and regulations and the trend towards software protection in the region. In addition, the implications of Korea's pending accession to the Universal Copyright Convention will be analyzed. Finally, this article will conclude with a discussion of the current reforms and their implications for Korean international trade law.

Computer Technology And Copyright- A Review Of Legislative And Judicial Developments In Japan, Teruo Doi

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article discusses and evaluates the legislative and judicial developments after the enactment of the Copyright Law which apply to computer programs and other computer-related technology. It examines: (1) the 1985 amendment to the Copyright Law enacted to protect computer programs, including the history of discussions by government agencies and judicial determinations that led to the amendment; (2) the 1986 Program Registration Law which supplements the existing provisions of the Copyright Law concerning registration; (3) the protection of databases under a new amendment to the Copyright Law; (4) the regulation of software rental business by the establishment of a public …

Some Problems Of Legal Regulation Of The Use Of Computer Technology In Czechoslovakia, Viktor Knapp

Michigan Journal of International Law

Technical progress is one of the most important elements of social development which necessarily causes change in the law. In the past few decades computer technology has become very important. As a component of technical progress, computer technology has given rise to new social relations which require legal regulation. Such regulation, however, is not provided adequately by existing legal rules in the contemporary Czechoslovak legal system.

The Limitations On The Protection Of Program Works Under Japanese Copyright Law, Dennis S. Karjala

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines these problems in the light of the program language, rule, and algorithm limitations on program protection under the Japanese Copyright Act. Section II sets forth the relevant statutory language, and Sections III and IV apply the program language and rule limitations to operating systems software and microcode. Section V considers the scope of protection under Japanese law in applications programs under the algorithm limitation on program protection. Finally, Section VI takes up the problem of whether copying for purposes of reverse engineering can be justified under the Act.

Book Review. Copyright Law: Cases And Materials By Craig Joyce, Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Copyright, Compromise And Legislative History, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

Copyright law gives authors a "property right." But what kind of property right? Indeed, a property right in what? The answers to these questions should be apparent from a perusal of title seventeen of the United States Code-the statute that confers the "property" right.' Courts, however, have apparently found title seventeen an unhelpful guide. For the most part, they look elsewhere for answers, relying primarily on prior courts' constructions of an earlier and very different statute on the same subject. 2

Fair Use And University Photocopying: Addison-Wesley Publishing V. New York University, Eric D. Brandfonbrener

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Note describes copyright law as it applies to university photocopy users, including an examination of the relevant legislative histories. Part II addresses the case law on university photocopying, both prior to and following the adoption of the Act. Part III briefly discusses the policies underlying university photocopying. The Note concludes with an analysis of the NYU settlement in relation to copyright law.