Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2005 Abstract: This article is based on an amicus brief filed in METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC., et al., v. GROKSTER, LTD., a case before the U.S. Supreme Court addressing indirect copyright liability for distribution of software that facilitates file sharing on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. This case turns on whether the Supreme […]
Indirect Copyright Liability: A Re-examination of Sony’s Staple Article of Commerce Doctrine
Risk Taking and Gender in Hierarchies
Author(s): Suzanne Scotchmer Year: 2010 Abstract: In a labor market hierarchy, promotions are affected by the noisiness of information about the candidates. I study the hypothesis that males are more risk taking than females, and its implications for rates of promotion and abilities of survivors. I define promotion hierarchies with and without memory, where memory […]
Should Economics Play a Role in Copyright Law and Policy?
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2005 Abstract: Given the utilitarian rationale for copyright and the economic incentives this law aims to create for investment in intellectual labor, it is somewhat surprising that economic analysis has thus far played such a small role in copyright law and policymaking. This article suggests several reasons why economic analysis has […]
The Trouble with Trolls: Innovation, Rent-Seeking and Patent Law Reform
Author(s): Robert P. Merges Year: 2009 Abstract: This Article analyzes the secondary market for patent rights. It defines a patent troll as a participant in this market that does not contribute to the social goal the patent system was meant to serve: technological innovation. The legitimate secondary market, in which patent rights are bought and […]
Questioning Copyright in Standards
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2006 Abstract: The rise of the information economy has caused copyright law to become a new actor in the intellectual property rights and standards debate because standard-setting organizations (SSOs) increasingly claim copyrights in standards and charge substantial fees for access to and rights to use standards such as International Organization for […]
The Generativity of Sony V. Universal: The Intellectual Legacy of Justice Stevens
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2006 Abstract: Justice John Paul Stevens is best known in the intellectual property field for his decision for the Court in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. Sony is among the most significant IP decisions rendered by the Court during the three decades of Justice Stevens’s tenure there […]
Updating Fair Use for Innovators and Creators in the Digital Age: Two Targeted Reforms
Author(s): Jennifer Urban Year: 2010 Abstract: In Parts I, II, and III of this first installment of our Report series, we discuss the critical role fair use plays in copyright’s balance between granting exclusive rights to creators and ensuring public benefits; how fair use has changed over time in order to accommodate new technologies and […]
Challenges in Mapping the Public Domain
Author(s): Pamela Samuelson Year: 2005 Abstract: This essay considers positive, normative and political reasons for creating a map of the public domain and contiguous terrains. For far too many years, the public domain has either been invisible or been viewed in a negative way. By positively describing the contents of the public domain, it is […]
Intellectual Property
Author(s): Year: 2005 Abstract: This chapter of the forthcoming Handbook of Law and Economics (A.M. Polinsky & S. Shavell (eds.)) provides a comprehensive survey of the burgeoning literature on the law and economics of intellectual property. It is organized around the two principal objectives of intellectual property law: promoting innovation and aesthetic creativity (focusing on […]
Governance of Intellectual Resources and Disintegration of Intellectual Property in the Digital Age
Author(s): Peter S. Menell Year: 2010 Abstract: The Supreme Court’s decision in eBay v. MercExchange brought into focus whether intellectual property policy should follow reflexively in the wake of tangible property doctrines or instead look to the distinctive market failures and institutional features of intellectual resources. Professor Richard Epstein argues in a recent article that […]