Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2011 Abstract: Following the most tumultuous decade in copyright history, Professor John Tehranian’s recent book – Infringement Nation: Copyright 2.0 and You – promises a broad-ranging account of the complexities of copyright infringement in the Internet Age. There can be little doubt that copyright infringement has exploded since Napster ushered […]
Infringement Conflation
An Analysis of the Scope of Copyright Protection for Application Programs
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2011 Abstract: The article describes how the first courts to address the scope of copyright protection for application programs have tended to view application programming as predominantly an exercise in creative expression and accordingly have interpreted the scope of copyright protection in this area quite broadly. As Part I explains, […]
Jumping the Grooveshark: A Case Study in DMCA Safe Harbor Abuse
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2011 Abstract: This commentary examines the controversy over Grooveshark, an on-demand music streaming service that has provided access to much of the catalogs of the major record labels without licenses from three of the four majors. It raises questions about how such reliable access could have been sustained under the […]
Does Copyright Protection Under the EU Software Directive Extend to Computer Program Behaviour, Languages and Interfaces?
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2011 Abstract: This article argues that competition and innovation in the software industry in the EU will be seriously undermined if the Court of Justice of the European Union in SAS Institute, Inc. v. World Programming Ltd. holds that copyright protection for computer programs extends to the functional behaviour of computer […]
Procuring Knowledge
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2003 Abstract: There is growing public interest in alternatives to intellectual property including, but not limited to, prizes and government grants. We argue that there is no single best mechanism for supporting research. Rather, mechanisms can only be compared within specific creative environments. We collect various historical and contemporary examples of […]
Mobile Payments: Consumer Benefits & New Privacy Concerns
Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Jennifer Urban Year: 2012 Abstract: Payment systems that allow people to pay using their mobile phones are promised to reduce transaction fees, increase convenience, and enhance payment security. New mobile payment systems also are likely to make it easier for businesses to identify consumers, to collect more information about consumers, […]
The Cost of Price: Why and How to Get Beyond Intellectual Property Internalism
Author(s): Amy Kapczynski Year: 2012 Abstract: The field of intellectual property (IP) law today is focused, as the name itself advertises, on one particular institutional approach to scientific and cultural production: IP. When legal scholars explain this focus, they typically do so with reference to the virtues of price. Because price gives us a decentralized […]
Oracle v. Google: Are APIs Copyrightable?
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2012 Abstract: Are application program interfaces (APIs) of computer programs protectable by copyrights in software that embodies them? Oracle v. Google is the most definitive ruling yet that addresses this question. The judge rejected Oracle’s claim of copyright and his ruling suggests that APIs are uncopyrightable more generally. Oracle will appeal, […]
How Fair Use Can Help Solve the Orphan Works Problem
Author(s): Jennifer Urban Year: 2012 Abstract: Many works that libraries, archives, and historical societies, among others, would like to digitize and make available online are “orphan works,” that is, works for which the copyright holder either is unknown or cannot be located after a diligent search. Encountering orphan works can be stymieing because the lack […]
Brief of Amici Curiae Academic Authors in Support of Defendant-Appellant and Reversal
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2012 Abstract: Filed in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Support of Defendant-Appellant Google. Summary of argument: Class certification was improperly granted below because the District Court failed to conduct a rigorous analysis of the adequacy of representation factor, as Rule 23(a)(4) requires. The three individual plaintiffs who claim to […]