"Preliminary Thoughts on Copyright Reform" with Pam Samuelson - Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Thursday December 6 at 5pm, Pam Samuelson will give a talk on "Preliminary Thoughts on Copyright Reform" in the Austin East Classroom at Harvard Law School. (Map)

Pam Samuelson is one of the foremost experts in copyright and intellectual property law, and is a Professor at UC Berkley, Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and a Berkman Center Faculty Fellow.

Copyright law is currently far too long, too complex, and largely incomprehensible, especially as to non-professionals. It is also the work product of pre-computer technology era. This law, moreover, lacks normative heft. That is, it does not embody a clear vision about what its normative purposes are.

This talk will offer some preliminary thoughts about why copyright reform is needed, why it will be difficult to undertake, and why notwithstanding these difficulties, it may nonetheless be worth doing. It offers suggestions about how one might go about trimming the statute to a more manageable length, articulating more simply its core normative purposes, and spinning certain situation-specific provisions off into a rulemaking process.

For more information about this talk and Pam Samuelson, see this page. The Austin East classroom is located on the first floor of Austin Hall.