Author(s): Jason Schultz Year: 2010 Abstract: As digital networks emerge as the dominant means of distributing copyrighted works, the first sale doctrine is increasingly marginalized. The limitations first sale places on the exclusive right of distribution are of little importance when the alienation and use of copies entails their reproduction. This fact of the modern […]
Digital Exhaustion
Sound Recordings, Works for Hire, and the Termination-of-Transfers Time Bomb
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2010 Abstract: In crafting the Copyright Act of 1976, Congress brokered a grand compromise between authors and publishers so as to bring about a unitary term of protection. Authors obtained an inalienable right to terminate transfers 35 years after an assignment, subject to designated carve outs for nine categories of […]
Beyond Google and Evil: How Policy Makers, Journalists and Consumers Should Talk Differently About Google and Privacy
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle Year: 2010 Abstract: Google has come to symbolize the tensions between the benefits of innovative, information-dependent new services and the desire of individuals to control the contexts in which personal information is used. This essay reviews hundreds of newspaper articles where Google speaks about privacy in an effort to characterize the […]
Academic Author Objections to the Google Book Search Settlement
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: This Article explains the genesis of the Google Book Search (GBS) project and the copyright infringement lawsuit challenging it that the litigants now wish to settle with a comprehensive restructuring of the market for digital books. At first blush, the settlement seems to be a win-win-win, as it will […]
Cap-and-Trade, Emissions Taxes, and Innovation
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2010 Abstract: Emissions taxes and carbon caps can both lead to efficient production of energy, in the sense of controlling carbon emissions to the extent that is efficient with existing technologies. However, the regulatory policy has a second objective, which is to create incentives to develop lower-carbon technologies. With both objectives […]
Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: The Google Book Search (GBS) initiative once promised to test the bounds of fair use, as the company started scanning millions of in-copyright books from the collections of major research libraries. The initial goal of this scanning was to make indexes of the books’ contents and to provide short […]
Verifiability and Group Formation in Markets
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2010 Abstract: We consider group formation with asymmetric information. Agents have unverifiable characteristics as well as the verifiable qualifications required for memberships in groups. The characteristics can be chosen, such as strategies in games, or can be learned, such as skills required for jobs. They can also be innate, such as […]
First Amendment Defenses in Trade Secrecy Cases
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: Only rarely do defendants in trade secrecy cases raise First Amendment defenses to misappropriation claims. In a few cases, however, such defenses have not only been raised, but have been successful. These successes have been controversial. Some commentators and at least one court have opined that First Amendment defenses […]
Locke Remixed
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2007 Abstract: This brief Comment was prepared as part of a conference on Intellectual Property and Social Justice at U.C. Davis Law School in March, 2006. I argue here against a broad legal right to remix digital content – to freely alter or modify pre-existing copyrighted works. I first note […]
Statutory Damages in Copyright Law: A Remedy in Need of Reform
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2010 Abstract: U.S. copyright law gives successful plaintiffs who promptly registered their works the ability to elect to receive an award of statutory damages, which can be granted in any amount between $750 and $150,000 per infringed work. This provision gives scant guidance about where in that range awards should be […]