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Abstract: This Article argues that courts should adjust the scope of copyright protection by considering time as a factor in fair use analysis. More specifically, the longer it has been since a copyrighted work was published, the greater the scope of fair use should be. Up to now, most of the debate over the role of time in copyright law has focused on the controversial issue of copyright duration and term extension. By focusing so narrowly on the end of the copyright term, however, this debate has neglected the more significant issue of how time should affect the scope of copyright protection during the copyright term. This Article argues that exceptionally strong justifications exist for considering time expressly in setting the scope of copyright protection, and that fair use provides an ideal vehicle for such consideration, both doctrinally and theoretically. By considering time in fair use analysis, courts can adjust the scope of copyright protection to respond more dynamically to the changes that occur in authorial incentives, public access, and other copyright interests over the length of the copyright term. Consideration of time also provides a legitimate way for courts to inject public-regarding values into the process of setting the scope of copyright protection.
Copyright, Duration, Eldred, Intellectual Property, Sonny Bono, Term Extension, Fair Use
Abstract: This Article explores and examines the implications of the increasingly regulatory nature of U.S. copyright law. For many years, U.S. copyright law operated under a judicially-administered, industry-neutral property rights regime. Congress set the scope of the property entitlement, leaving the courts to enforce the entitlement and the markets to organize the production of creative works in light of the entitlement structure. In recent years, however, Congress has shown an increasing willingness to intervene more directly in the structure of copyright markets. Congress's most recent legislative efforts are far more complex and industry-specific, allocate rights and responsibilities in a far more detailed manner, and in some cases directly regulate technology and prices in the market. This Article examines and critically evaluates this trend. It first makes the descriptive claim that this kind of regulatory copyright has become increasingly the preferred, and indeed perhaps dominant, mode of copyright lawmaking. It then critically assesses both the strengths and weaknesses of this approach in the copyright law context, applying insights from the broader literature. Finally, it offers suggestions for both being more selective in deploying this mode of copyright lawmaking and improving the function of such lawmaking in cases where it is deployed.
Copyright, Regulation, Complexity, Copyright Office, Librarian of Congress, Compulsory License
Abstract: Copyright law has a rather well-developed theory of the author, but it has no similarly well-developed conception of the consumer. This exploratory Article is an attempt to begin piecing together a coherent image of the copyright consumer. The author argues that copyright law currently conceives of consumers in one of two ways, either as passive consumers of copyrighted works or as active authors in their own right. This binary conception of the consumer, however, is incomplete, as it neglects important and complex consumer interests in autonomy, communication, and creative self-expression. By examining these additional interests, it is possible to begin constructing a richer and more complex image of the copyright consumer. This image, in turn, can help shed light on some of the current debates over the proper shape and scope of copyright law.
Abstract: This Article analyzes the impact of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) on academic encryption research. In this Article, I argue that for both legal and practical reasons academic encryption researchers should be able to conduct and publish certain types of research without significant fear of liability under the DMCA. However, the DMCA will have a non-trivial impact on the conditions under which such research takes place, and this impact can be expected to have several undesirable effects. More broadly, this impact highlights the problematic way in which the DMCA regulates scientific research in furtherance of intellectual property rights. The Article concludes with a number of suggestions for mitigating some of these negative effects.
Abstract: According to the U.S. Supreme Court, copyright law's fair use and idea/expression doctrines are "built-in free speech safeguards" that establish a "definitional balance" between copyright and the First Amendment. Yet these "built-in free speech safeguards" are among the most uncertain and ill-defined doctrines in all of copyright law. If we accept the Supreme Court's statement that these doctrines play a critical role as First Amendment safety valves, it follows that the chilling effect of uncertainty in these doctrines has a constitutional dimension. Current copyright law doctrine, however, fails to take into account the potential chilling effect of copyright liability. This is in sharp contrast to other areas of law, such as defamation, in which the U.S. Supreme Court has expressly accounted for the chilling effect of potential liability by making substantive and procedural alterations to the law in these areas. In this Article, I argue that a similar approach is warranted in copyright law. To the extent copyright's internal safety valves are necessary to prevent a conflict with free speech interests, courts should expressly take into account the need for breathing space, as they do in other areas.
Eldred v. Ashcroft, copyright law, fair use doctrine, free speech
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