Copyright in Cyberspace

April 5

The Internet has enabled individuals to become involved in the production of media and to distribute their contributions widely at a very low cost. The former bastion of the entertainment industry is opening up to what many are calling a democratization of culture. The copyright doctrine of fair use seemingly bolsters the right to "recut, reframe, and recycle" previous works, but the protection fair use gives to those re-purposing copyrighted material is notoriously uncertain.

Digital and file-sharing technologies also spawned the proliferation of sharing of media and music, which has led to a number of controversial legal and technological strategies. The "notice-and-takedown" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") allow Internet service providers to limit their liability for the copyright infringements of their users if the ISPs expeditiously remove material in response to complaints from copyright owners. The DMCA provides for counter-notice and "put-back" of removed material, but some argue that the statutory mechanism can chill innovative, constitutionally-protected speech.

This class provides an overview of some major copyright law concepts and takes up some of the issues swirling around copyright in cyberspace.

Assignments

Assignment 4 due

Required Readings

• U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright Basics
• Newton v. Diamond, 204 F.Supp.2d 1244 (C.D. Cal. 2002) (Secs. I - IV(a), pp. 1246 - 1259) (9th Circuit Decision Optional)
• 17 U.S.C. § 107 ("Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use")
• Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (pp. 1-20)
• 17 U.S.C. § 512(c) ("Information Residing on Systems or Networks at Direction of Users")
• "Viacom Says YouTube Ignored Copyrights" (M. Helft, NY Times, 3/18/2010)
• aggregation white paper.pdf The Rise of the News Aggregator: Legal Implications and Best Practices

Optional Readings

• Super Bust: Due Process and Domain Name Seizure
• Creative Commons: A Spectrum of Rights (comic)
• Bridgeport v. Dimension, 410 F.3d 792 (6th Cir. 2005) (Secs. I - II, pp. 795 - 805)
• Center for Social Media, Recut, Reframe, Recyle (full report optional)
• MGM v. Grokster, 545 U.S. 913 (2005) (Sec. II, pp. 928 - 937)
• "Rowling Wins Lawsuit Against Potter Lexicon" (J. Eligon, NY Times, 9/8/08)
• New York Times Bits Blog: Mixing It Up Over Remixes and Fair Use
• Wendy Seltzer's Blog, NFL Saga
• EFF, Unsafe Harbors: Abusive DMCA Subpoenas and Takedown Demands