Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell To Chair Advisory Council And Join Media Institute Board as Ex Officio Member FOR RELEASE: Nov. 24, 2014 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., Nov. 24, 2014 – The Media Institute today announced the launch of a new initiative to help safeguard Internet freedoms around [...]
Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg, Columbia University School of Law October 31, 2014 In Cambridge University Press v. Becker,1 three academic publishers sued Georgia State University for systematically infringing their copyrights by implementing a policy that permitted faculty members to make excerpts from the plaintiffs’ works as electronic course reserves through the university library’s website. The [...]
Prof. Robert P. Merges, University of California at Berkeley School of Law October 27, 2014 Introduction The Software Freedom Law Center said that, in its opinion in CLS Bank v. Alice,1 the Supreme Court “took one more step towards the abolition of patents on software inventions. Upholding its previous positions, the Court held that abstract [...]
Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law October 15, 2014 Nearly 25 years ago, Judge Pierre Leval published what would become an enormously influential article on copyright’s fair use doctrine. The Leval article emphasized that an unauthorized use of copyrighted materials is more likely to be a fair use if it is “transformative”; that is, [...]
Prof. Rodney A. Smolla, Duke University School of Law October 6, 2014 I have previously written in IP Viewpoints about “appropriation art” in the context of the Cariou v. Prince1litigation, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that artist Richard Prince’s “appropriation” of the copyrighted photographs of Patrick Cariou were [...]
Prof. James Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law September 30, 2014 A small copyright decision out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last month has gotten a big reaction from copyright experts. The case is Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation, and it involves an entertaining set of facts. In the 1960s, [...]
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai To Deliver Keynote Remarks at Nov. 18 Event FOR RELEASE: Sept. 29, 2014 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., Sept. 29, 2014 – The Media Institute will bestow awards on Senator Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of theMotion Picture Association of America, and Gannett President and [...]
Judges Include Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographers FOR RELEASE: Sept. 17, 2014 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., Sept. 17 – A photo contest aimed at amateur enthusiasts will offer photographers new chances to express their creativity as part of this year’s Free Speech Week (FSW). The “Free Speech Everyday” photo contest [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School September 15, 2014 The headline of the New York Times of Tuesday, Aug. 7, 1945, is as chilling today as it was then: “FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON JAPAN; MISSILE IS EQUAL TO 20,000 TONS OF TNT; TRUMAN WARNS FOE OF A ‘RAIN OF RUIN.’” Some [...]
Prof. Robert P. Merges, University of California at Berkeley School of Law September 5, 2014 Introduction Exclusive rights for new technologies, in order to promote innovation: that’s what the patent system is supposed to be about. And at least sometimes, even today, it still is. At times, to promote innovation today patents may be interpreted [...]