My first post addressed some of the common assumptions about what copyright laws can do. The two syllogisms and one tautology were not an expression of my beliefs, but rather an expression of common views, views I believe are mistaken for reasons I detail in the introduction to and in Chapter 3 of the book. […]
Tag Archives | Copyright
How to Fix Copyright, Part I
Thanks to Eugene for allowing to be a guest and to discuss my new book How to Fix Copyright (Oxford University Press). This is the first of a few posts. The title indicates that the book is both prescriptive – offering solutions (this is the “how to” part) – and attempts to be constructive: I […]
Viacom v Youtube, and Why it Matters:
A while back, I posted my early reaction to the SDNY’s decision in the long-running Viacom lawsuit asserting secondary copyright infringement on the part of Youtube. Here’s what I said then: The case was/is enormously important — Youtube was asserting that it was immune under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (specifically, Sec. 512(c)) from copyright […]
Copyright as a Government Program
In this, my last post – thanks so much Eugene and to those who took the time to comment – I will address remarks by Brian, the devil’s advocate. He very politely stated: “While Orin let you off the hook, I think you, and maybe he given his acquiescence, miss the full import of his […]
Copyright and the Why of Property Talk
A few comments on my first two posts referred to the characterization of copyright as “intellectual property” or a “property.” While there have been a number of efforts to track down the fairly recent usage “intellectual property,” efforts to describe copyright rights as property are of an older vintage in both the United States and […]
Copyright and Morals
When I was a law student, a professor asked us whether we believed law and morals were co-extensive: if the law did not prohibit certain conduct, did that mean it was moral to engage in it? One of the comments on my first post similarly asked how I distinguished effective laws from moral considerations, whether […]
Moral Panics and Copyright Law
Thanks Eugene for allowing me to be a guest blogger. I wrote Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars for two reasons. The first is the reason I have written everything, to learn. For me, writing is a way to discipline my thought, to the extent I am capable of doing so. The second reason was […]