CopyrightX Applications Open on December 13

December 23 Update: The regular application process for the 2014 version of CopyrightX is now closed.  We will select 500 participants from the persons who applied on or prior to December 23, 2013.  However, we are still accepting applications for the Waitlist.  Persons will be admitted from the Waitlist to fill positions that become available when some of the persons accepted in the first round decide to drop the course.

In 2013, Harvard Law School and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society launched the first free, open, and online law-school course.  CopyrightX, taught by Professor William Fisher, explored the current law of copyright and the ongoing debates concerning how that law should be reformed. 

CopyrightX will be offered again in the Spring of 2014.  The application process opens on December 13 and closes on December 23. Approximately 500 students will be selected; we welcome diverse and international participation. For more information on the application and admissions process, and the course generally, please see http://copyx.org.

Last year, 500 participants from 70 different countries took the course.  Most were neither lawyers nor law students, but rather were drawn from groups that rely upon or are affected by copyright law:  musicians, filmmakers, authors, journalists, architects, photographers, software designers, and librarians.  

CopyrightX differed from most online courses in several respects.  Most importantly, the 500 participants were divided into 20 “sections,” each taught by a Harvard Law School teaching fellow.  These small groups met once a week, online, to discuss issues presented by the week’s recorded lecture and assigned readings.  (A detailed analysis of the 2013 experimental version of the course is available at http://cyber.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/IP/CopyrightX_Assessment.pdf.)  This year’s version of the course will incorporate many lessons gleaned from the first version but will retain its basic structure.