Copyright Law

4 hours - Jessica Litman

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Required Texts:

Julie E. Cohen, Lydia Pallas Loren, Ruth Gana Okediji & Maureen A, O'Rourke, COPYRIGHT IN A GLOBAL INFORMATION ECONOMY (5th edition 2019), isbn 9781543813630. I recommend that you purchase the Looseleaf edition, which sells for $90. If you prefer, a $270 hardcover edition is available for sale or rent.

2021 Supplement (free digital download. Download it here.)

A current copy of the Copyright statute (Also free. Download it here)

Copyright reference sources:

Here is a modest collection of additional reference sources available on the World Wide Web. Each of them includes links to further sources, some of which are more reliable than others. Don't believe everything you read.

The copyright statute: Title 17 of the US Code

United States Copyright Office homepage
- Another copy of the copyright statute
- The Compendium of Copyright Office Practices (3d edition, January 2021)
- Information and Resources on the implementation of the Music Modernization Act
- Archive of Copyright Office Review Board decisions in administrative appeals of registration refusals
- Fair use index
- Copyright Office YouTube channel
- Learning Engine Video series explaining the Copyright Office and basic copyright concepts
- Recent Copyright Office Studies:
  - Ancillary Copyright Protections for Publishers (June 2022)
  - State Sovereign Immunity (August 2021)
  - Unclaimed Royalties (July 2021)
  - Section 512 Study (May 2020)
  - Moral Rights (April 2019)
  - Copyright and Visual Works (January 2019)
  - Revising Section 108: Copyright Exceptions for Libraries and Archives (September 2017)
  - Section 1201 of Title 17 (June 2017)
  - Software Enabled Consumer Products (December 2016)
  - The Making Available Right in the United States (February 2016)
  - Copyright and the Music Marketplace (February 2015)
  - Orphan Works and Mass Digitization (June 2015)
  - Copyright Small Claims (September 2013)
  - List, with links, of current, ongoing studies
- Copyright Law Revision Studies (1955-1960)
House Report 94-1476, accompanying the 1976 Copyright Act (1976)

U.S. Government Executive Branch resources:
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Copyright Policy resources
- U.S. National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center("Protection is Our Trademark")
- U.S. Trade Representative Office of Intellectual Property and Innovation
- U.S. Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force 2013 Green Paper on Copyright Policy, Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Economy with links to comments submitted in response to the Report, and 2016 White Paper on Remixes, First Sale, and Statutory Damages
Resources hosted by universities:
- Copyright History
  - Primary Sources on Copyright: 1450 to 1900
  - GWU/Columbia Music Copyright Infringement Resource collection of MIDI files, MP3 files, and partial scores from songs involved in infringment cases
  - Stanford University Library Copyright Renewal Database
  - University of Pennsylvania Digital Library Online Books Page: Information about the Catalog of Copyright Entries
  - University of New Hampshire IP Mall Copyright Collection
- Copyright policy
  - Stanford University Library Copyright & Fair Use Site
  - Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain
  - George Mason University Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy
  - Harvard Berkman Center’s Lumen project
  - Columbia Law School Keep Your Copyrights
  - yin and yang: University of Michigan Library Copyright Information site and University of Michigan Copyright Compliance site
  - Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository: Copyright Principles Project: Directions for Reform (2010)
  - University of Nottingham Center for Research Communications
  - Berklee College of Music Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship Report: Fair Music: Transparency and Payment Flows in the Music Industry (2015)

Other useful resources
- Copyright History:
  - New York Public Library’s U.S. Copyright History research project
  - Rob Kasunic's Copyright Law and Litigation Resource (including a copy of the 1909 Copyright Act)
- Copyright policy:
  - Spider Robinson's 1983 short story: Melancholy Elephants
  - Authors Alliance Guides:
  - The Authors Guild: Where We Stand
  - Copyright Clearance Center: Learn About Copyright
  - Compare and contrast the Copyright Society of the USA’s Copyright Kids page with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Teaching Copyright Curriculum.
  - Creative Commons
  - Free Software Foundation: Free Software Resources
  - International Federation of the Phonographic Industry: Resources and Reports
  - International Intellectual Property Alliance: Copyright Industries in the US Economy
  - Knowledge Economy International Reports and Briefing Notes
  - Library Copyright Alliance
  - Open Knowledge Foundation
  - SoundExchange: Advocacy

International Copyright Resources

The World Intellectual Property Organization

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
The WIPO COPYRIGHT TREATY
The WIPO PERFORMANCES AND PHONOGRAMS TREATY
Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled
WIPO Lex (searchable database of national IP laws)

Wittem Project Model European Copyright Code
EBLIDA (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations)
EU Copyright (with links to EU copyright legislation)

Comparative Copyright Resources

Australian Copyright Council
Australian Digital Alliance
Canadian Intellectual Property Office Copyrights page.
Government of India Copyright Office
Japan Copyright Research and Information Center
U.K. Intellectual Property Office

Copyright Law & Policy Blogs

(I warrant neither quality nor accuracy. If you explore these blogs, you will find a wide range of views on whether copyright law is essential to any just society, more trouble that it is worth, or something in between. Only some of the blogs are written by lawyers. Find one that speaks to you and check it weekly.)

Copyright Office Blog: Copyright —Creativity at Work
Techdirt
Rebecca Tushnet’s 43(b)log
DisCo (Disruptive Competition Project)
The Fashion Law blog
Kluwer Copyright Blog
Michael Geist’s Tech Law Topics Blog
Chris Castle’s Music Technology Policy blog
TorrentFreak
Creative Commons weblog
Aaron Moss's Copyright Lately blog
David Newhoff’s The Illusion of More
Infojustice.org
Zvi Rosen’s Mostly IP History Blog
The MTTLR Blog
Copyright Alliance Blog
Creative Future blog
Afro-IP blog
Terry Hart’s Copyhype
Hugh Stephens blog
Excess Copyright blog
IP Kat
That Song Sounds Like
Stop Stealing Photos wall of shame
Jennifer Rothman’s Roadmap to the Right of Publicity

News about copyright-affected industries

Billboard
Complete Music Update
Digital Music News
Hollywood Reporter (especially the THR Esq. blog)
Publishers Weekly
Variety

Thoughtful documentary films about copyright law

Citizen 3.0 (2010) (127 minutes)
Paywall: The Business of Scholarship (2018) (65 minutes)
Good Copy Bad Copy (2007)(59 minutes)
Before the Music Dies (2006) (90 minutes)
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)(105 minutes)
RiP! A Remix Manifesto (2009)(87 minutes)
Tom Scott’s video: YouTube’s Copyright System isn't Broken. The World’s Is (2020) (43 minutes)

Organizations and businesses heavily involved in copyright:

A sampling of Internet sites raising copyright questions:

Academia.edu
Adam Neeley’s YouTube channel
Archive of Our Own
calvin and hobbes: The Search Engine, by Mike Yingling
Covered
DJ Earworm
Endel
Garfield minus Garfield
The Gluten-Free Museum
The Hawkeye Initiative
HowItShouldHaveEnded.com and How It Should Have Ended YouTube Channel
The Indigo Book
Internet Archive
Jukebox neural net
Kickstarter: Story Surgeon — The App for Fixing Someone Else’s Book
Barry Kite’s Aberrant Art
Monolith
Musicless Music Videos
The Office Time Machine
Pack Rat Studios
The Parody Project
The Pirate Bay
Pokenatomy Kickstarter campaign
Public.Resource.Org
Pogo’s movie remixes on YouTube
Prevuze (Days of Our Lives spoilers)
Rapidgator.net
Read Any Book
ResearchGate
Sci-Hub
Semaphore Press
Smithsonian Open Access
Professor David Touretzky’s Gallery of CSS Descramblers
Unglue.it
VidAngel
WhoSampled?
Wikipedia
YouTubNow

Return to the syllabus

Send an email message to me at jdlitman -at- umich.edu

University of Michigan Law School Law 633