Updated 9/19/16

Law 874

Seminar in Advanced Copyright Law Topics

Recommended reading

 

You needn’t write your paper on one of the topics we cover in the seminar; any copyright law topic is okay. In case you decide that want to write on one of the topics we’re looking at, or if you are just sufficiently intrigued to want to read more, here are some recommendations for further reading, organized by topic. They include books, articles, and Copyright Office reports.

Copyright Office Reports and Policy Studies are a mixed bag. Some of them are written in-house; others are written by outside contractors, typically law professors. Some of them are thorough, thoughtful, and even-handed. Others appear to be advocacy documents that minimize contrary policy arguments and mischaracterize conflicting authority in order to support the Office’s policy recommendations. Reasonable observers have differed as to whether the most slanted of the Reports are deliberately deceptive, or merely distorted by their authors' wishful thinking about what the law should be. Even the least reliable of the Reports, however, contains pointers to useful background material.

Fan fiction

• Rebecca Tushnet essentially invented legal scholarship on fan fiction with an article she wrote while she was still a law student:
  • Rebecca Tushnet, Legal Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law, 17 Loy. L.A. Ent. L.J. 651 (1997)
• Tushnet has continued to explore the topic. Here are some other articles of hers that are well worth reading.
  • Rebecca Tushnet, My Fair Ladies: Sex, Gender, and Fair Use in Copyright, 15 AM. U. J. GENDER, SOC. POL’Y & L. 273 (2007)
  • Rebecca Tushnet, Payment in Credit: Copyright Law and Subcultural Creativity, 70 L. & CONTEMP. PROBS. 135 (2007)
  • Rebecca Tushnet, User-Generated Discontent: Transformation in Practice, 31 COLUM. J.L. & ARTS 110 (2008)
  • Rebecca Tushnet & Francesca Coppa, How to Suppress Women’s Remix, 77 CAMERA OBSCURA 131 (2011)
  • Rebecca Tushnet, Scary Monsters: Hybrids, Mashups, and Other Illegitimate Children, 86 NOTRE DAME L. REV. 2133 (2011).
• Here are some law review articles by other folks:
  • Anupam Chander & Madhavi Sunder, Everyone's a Superhero: A Cultural Theory of Mary Sue Fan Fiction as Fair Use, 95 Calif. L. Rev. 597 (2007)
  • Julie Cohen, Creativity and Culture in Copyright Theory, 40 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1151 (2007)
  • Sonia Katyal, Performance, Property, and the Slashing of Gender in Fan Fiction, 14 J. Gender, Social Policy & L. 461 (2006)
  • Sonia Katyal, Slash/Ing Gender and Intellectual Property: A View from Fan Fiction, in Diversity in Intellectual Property Identities, Interests, and Intersections (Irene Calboli, ed. 2015)
  • Jessica Litman, Creative Reading, 70 L. & Contemp. Probs. 175 (2007)
  • Timothy Wu, Tolerated Use, 31 Colum. J. L & Arts 617 (2008)
• Finally, if you’re interested in the non-legal aspects of fan culture, here are some sources to begin with:
  • Transformative Works and Cultures (a peer-reviewed scholarly journal)
  • Joanna Russ, MAGIC MOMMAS, TREMBLING SISTERS, PURITANS AND PERVERTS (1985)
  • Karen Hellekson & Kristina Busse, THE FAN FICTION STUDIES READER (2014)

Digital first sale

• Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Shultz pretty much own this topic. They have a book coming out in October: THE END OF OWNERSHIP: PERSONAL PROPERTY IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY (2016). Here are a couple of their law review articles on the topic:

  • Aaron Perzanowski & Jason Shultz, Digital Exhaustion, 58 UCLA L. Rev. 889 (2011)
  • Aaron Perzanowski & Jason Shultz, Copyright Exhaustion and the Personal Use Dilema, 96 Minn. L. Rev. (2012)
• Other Books:
  • Cory Doctorow, INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE (2014) (on course reserve)
  • Margaret Jane Radin, BOILERPLATE: THE FINE PRINT, VANISHING RIGHTS, AND THE RULE OF LAW (2013)(also on course reserve).
• Other articles:
  • Ariel Katz, The First Sale Doctrine and the Economics of Post-Sale Restraints, 2014 BYU L. Rev. 55 (2014)
  • Ariel Katz, Intellectual Property, Antitrust, andthe Rule of Law: Between PrivatePower and State Power, 17 Theoretical Inquiries in Law 633 (2016)
  • Aaron Perzanowski & Chris Hoofnagle, What We Buy When We Buy Now,165 U. Penn. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2017)
  • R. Anthony Reese, The First Sale Doctrine in an Era of Digital Networks, 44 B.C. L. Rev. 577 (2003)

Anticircumvention and section 1201

Lots of people have written about section 1201. here is a small sample:

• James Boyle, Chapter 5: The Farmers Tale: An Allegory, in THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: ENCLOSING THE COMMONS OF THE MIND (2008)
• Julie Cohen, A Right to Read Anonymously: A Closer Look at "Copyright Management" in Cyberspace, 28 Conn. L. Rev 981 (1996)
• Tarleton Gillespie, WIRED SHUT: COPYRIGHT AND THE SHAPE OF DIGITAL CULTURE (2007)
• Jane C. Ginsburg, From Having Copies to Experiencing Works: The Development of an Access Right in US Copyright Law, 50 J. Copyright Society 113 (2003)
• Jessica Litman, DIGITAL COPYRIGHT (chapters 8 - 10) (2006)
• Glynn S. Lunney, The Death of Copyright: Digital Technology, Private Copying, and the DMCA, 87 Va L. Rev. (2001)
• Randal Picker, Fair Use v. Fair Access, 31 Colum. J. l. & Arts (2008)
• Pamela Samuelson & Suzanne Scotchmer, The Law & Economics of Reverse Engineering, 111 Yale L. J. 1575 (2002)
• Rebecca Tushnet, I Put You There: User-Generated Content and Anticircumvention, 12 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 889 (2010)

Copyrightable subject matter, useful articles, and Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands

This topic raises large philosophical questions, like what sorts of things copyrights ought to protect, and narrow doctrinal questions, like how does a court figure out whether a particular feature of a useful article is separable from and capable of exisiting independently of the useful features. In addition, because the Star Athletica case involves the design of cheerleader uniforms, it invites us to think (again) about how copyright law should treat fashion design. Here are some articles discussing all three facets of the topic:

• Ralph S. Brown, Design Protection: An Overview, 34 UCLA L.Rev. 1341 (1987)
• Ralph S. Brown, Eligibility for Copyright Protection: A Search for Principled Standards, 70 Minn. L. Rev. 579 (1985)
• Christopher Buccafusco & Jeanne C. Fromer, Fashion’s Function in Intellectual Property Law, http://ssrn.com/abstract=2826201 (Aug. 18, 2016)
• Jane C. Ginsburg, "Courts Have Twisted Themselves into Knots": US Copyright Protection for Applied Art, Columbia J. L. & Arts (forthcoming 2017)
• C. Scott Hemphill & Jeannie Suk, The Law, Culture and Economics of Fashion, 61 Stanford L. Rev. 1147 (2009)
• Shira Perlmutter, Conceptual Separability and Copyright in the Designs for Useful Articles, 37 J. Copr. Socy 339 (1989)
• Kal Raustiala & Christopher Sprigman, The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design, 92 Va. L. Rev. 1687 (2006)
• Kal Raustiala & Christopher Sprigman, THE KNOCKOFF ECONOMY: HOW IMITATION SPURS INNOVATION (2012) (on course reserve)
• Kal Rustiala & Christpoher Sprigman, When are IP Rights Necessary? Evidence from Innovation in IP's Negative Space, in 1 PETER MENELL & BEN DEPOORTER, RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON THE ECONOMICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW (forthcoming 2016)
• Susan Scafidi, Intellectual Property and Fashion Design, in Intellectual Property and Information Wealth (Peter Yu, ed. 2006)

Music licensing

• Donald Passman, ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS (2009)(on course reserve)(the University library has the more recent 2015 edition)
• Peter DiCola & Matthew Sag, An Information-Gathering Approach to Copyright Policy, 34 Cardozo L. Rev. 173 (2012)
• Peter DiCola, & David Touve, Licensing in the Shadow of Copyright, 17 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 397 (2014)
• William W. Fisher III, PROMISES TO KEEP: TECHNOLOGY, LAW, AND THE FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT (2004) (on course reserve)
• Future of Music Coalition, Navigating the New Music Landscape (April 2015)
• Daniel Gervais (ed), COLLECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS (3d ed. 2016) (on course reserve)
• Casey Rae Hunter, Better Mousetraps: Licensing, Access, and Innovation in the New Music Marketplace, 7 J. Bus. & Tech L. 35 (2012)
• Ariel Katz, The Potential Demise of Another Natural Monopoly: Rethinking the Collective Administration of Performing Rights, 1 J. Comp. L. & Econ. 541 (2004)
• Jessica Litman, Antibiotic Resistance, 30 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment L.J. 53 (2012)
• Jessica Litman, Sharing and Stealing, 26 COMM/ENT 1 (2004)
• Lydia Loren, Untangling the Web of Music Copyrights, 53 Case Western Reserve L. Rev. 673 (2003)
• U.S. Copyright Office, PRO Licensing of Jointly Owned Works (2016)

Pre-1972 sound recordings

• U.S. Copyright Office, Federal Copyright Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings (2011)
• U.S. Copyright Office, Performance Rights in Sound Recordings (1978)
• Ralph S. Brown, Unification: A Cheerful Requiem for Common Law Copyright, 24 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 1070 (1977)
• Ralph S. Brown, Publication and Preemption in Copyright Law: Elegiac Refections on Goldstein v. California, 22 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 1022 (1975)
• Kembrew McLeod & Peter Dicola, CREATIVE LICENSE: THE LAW AND CULTURE OF DIGITAL SAMPLING (2011) (on course reserve)
• Kevin Parks, MUSIC AND COPYRIGHT IN AMERICAN: TOWARD THE CELESTIAL JUKEBOX (2012)
• Barbara A. Ringer, Study No. 26: The Unauthorized Duplication of Sound Recordings, Copyright Law Revision Studies (1957)
• Eve Subotnik & June Besek, Constitutional Obstacles? Reconsidering Copyright Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings, 37 COLUM. J.L. & ARTS 327 (2014)
• Elizabeth Townsend Gard & Erin Anapole, Federalizing Pre-1972 Sound Recordings: An Analysis of the Current Debate, 15 Tulane J. Tech. & Intell. Prop. 123 (2012)
• Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, Protection for Pre-1972 Sound Recordings under State Law and Its Impact on Use by Nonprofit Institutions:A 10-State Analysis (2009)

Termination of transfers

• Benjamin Melniker & Harvey Melniker, Termination of Transfers and Licenses Under the New Copyright Law, 22 N. Y. L. Sch. L. Rev. 589 (1977)
• Future of Music Coalition, The Right to Terminate: A Musician’s Guide to Copyright Reversion (2012)
• Guy Rub, Stronger than Kryptonite? Inalienable Profit-Sharing Schemes in Copyright Law, 27 Harvard J. Law & Tech. 49 (2013)

Service provider liability and section 512

• Annemarie Bridy, Copyright's Digital Deputies: DMCA-Plus Enforcement by Internet Intermediaries, John A. Rothchild (ed.), RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE LAW (2016)
• Robert Levine, FREE RIDE: HOW THE INTERNET IS DESTROYING THE CULTURE BUSINESS AND HOW THE CULTURE BUSINESS CAN FIGHT BACK (2011)(on course reserve)
• David Moon, Patrick Ruffini & David Segal, HACKING POLITICS: HOW GEEKS, PROGRESSIVES, THE TEA PARTY, GAMERS, ANARCHISTS AND SUITS TEAMED UP TO DEFEAT SOPA AND SAVE THE INTERNET (2013)
• Matthew Sag, Copyright's Digital/Analog Divide, http://ssrn.com/abstract=2830184 (Aug. 25, 2016)
• Jennifer Urban, Joe Karaganis, & Brianna Schoefield, Notice and Takedown in Everyday Practice (2016)
• Jennifer Urban & Laura Quilter, Undue Process: Challenges for Rightsholders and Service Providers Implementing Section 512's Notice and Takedown Provisions (2009)

Other good books, articles, and studies on other copyright law topics:

• Patricia Aufderheide & Peter Jaszi, RECLAIMING FAIR USE: HOW TO PUT BALANCE BACK IN COPYRIGHT (2011)
• Robert Brauneis and Dotan Oliar, Copyright's Race, Gender and Age: A First Quantitative Look at Registrations, http://ssrn.com/abstract=2831850 (Aug. 29, 2016)
• Julie Cohen, CONFIGURING THE NETWORKED SELF: LAW, CODE, AND THE PLAY OF EVERYDAY PRACTICE (2012)
• Peter Decherney, HOLLYWOOD’S COPYRIGHT WARS: FROM EDISON TO THE INTERNET (2012) (on course reserve)
• Niva Elkin-Koren & Eli Salzberger, THE LAW AND ECONOMICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: THE LIMITS OF ANALYSIS (2013
• Roberta Kwall, THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY: FORGING A MORAL RIGHTS LAW FOR THE UNITED STATES (2010)
• Lawrence Lessig, FREE CULTURE: HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE AND CONTROL CREATIVITY (2004)
• Lawrence Lessig, THE FUTURE OF IDEAS; THE FATE OF THE COMMONS IN A CONNECTED WORLD (2001)
• Joseph Menn, ALL THE RAVE: THE RISE AND FALL OF SHAWN FANNING’S NAPSTER (2003)
• Neil Netanel, FROM MAIMONIDES TO MICROSOFT: THE JEWISH LAW OF COPYRIGHT SINCE THE BIRTH OF PRINT (2016)
• Neil Netanel, COPYRIGHT’S PARADOX (2008) (on course reserve)
• Richard A. Posner, THE LITTLE BOOK OF PLAGIARISM (2007)
• Public Knowledge, CAPTURED: SYSTEMIC BIAS AT THE US COPYRIGHT OFFICE (2016)
• Clay Shirky, COGNITIVE SURPLUS: HOW TECHNOLOGY MAKES CONSUMERS INTO COLLABORATORS (2011) (on course reserve)
• Jessica Silbey, THE EUREKA MYTH: CREATORS, INNOVATORS AND EVERDAY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (2015) (on course reserve)