Brief of Amici Curiae Yale Law School Information Society Project and Affiliated Scholars of Intellectual Property and Free Expression Law in Support of Defendant-Appellant Pandora Media, Inc.

Abstract

Amici's interest is in respecting the balance between the rights of authors to control their creative expression and the public’s interests in free expression. We urge the Court to consider both the First Amendment and the practical consequences for speech when construing state copyright law, and on the basis of these considerations we urge the Court to reject the district court’s reading of California Civil Code Section 980(a)(2) insofar as it makes an unnecessary and unwarranted departure from copyright law’s longstanding commitment to balancing authors’ rights and the public’s speech interests.