syllabus

Class 1 (1/19):  Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment

Readings: 

• Optional (for those who have yet to take Copyright Law): Copyright Basics

• Recording Industry Association of America v. Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., 180 F.3d 1072 (9th Cir. 1999)

• A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001)

• In re Aimster Copyright Litigation, 334 F.3d 643 (7th Cir. 2003)

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v Grokster, Ltd., 545 U.S. 913 (2005) (4th ed.: pp. 542-551; 5th ed.: pp. 606-15) Please reread these cases even if you remember them from the Copyright Law class.

• Chan Nai Ming v HKSAR [2007] 3 HKC 255

• Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas, 579 F. Supp. 2d 1210 (D. Minn. 2008) (4th/5th ed.: pp. 346-352)

• Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi, Inc., 934 F. Supp. 2d 640 (S.D.N.Y. 2013) (4th ed.: pp. 356-59; 5th ed.: pp. 356-60)

Class 2 (1/26):  Digital Rights Management

Readings: 

• 17 U.S.C. § 1201

• 17 U.S.C. § 1202

• Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Reimerdes, 111 F. Supp. 2d 294 (S.D.N.Y. 2000) (4th ed.: pp. 867-75; 5th ed.: pp. 866-74)

• Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Skylink Technologies, Inc., 381 F.3d 1178 (Fed. Cir. 2004) (4th ed.: pp. 885-92; 5th ed.: pp. 882-89)

• Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 387 F.3d 522 (6th Cir. 2004) (4th ed.: pp. 893-97; 5th ed.: pp. 890-95)

• Kelly v. Arriba Soft Corp., 77 F. Supp. 2d 1116 (C.D. Cal. 1999) (4th ed.: pp. 904-06; 5th ed.: pp. 901-03)

• Murphy v. Millennium Radio Group, LLC 650 F.3d 295 (3d Cir. 2011) (4th ed.: pp. 900-04; 5th ed.: pp. 897-901)

• Anticircumvention and Anti-anticircumvention, 84 Denv. U. L. Rev. 13 (2006) Read Part II (The Anticircumvention Regime)

Class 3 (2/2):  Online Service Provider Liability

Readings: 

• 17 U.S.C. § 512

• 4th ed.: pp. 509-38 + Ventura Content (below); 5th ed.: pp. 618-58

  • Viacom Int’l, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc., 676 F.3d 19 (2d Cir. 2012)

  • Ventura Content, Ltd. v. Motherless, Inc., 885 F.3d 597 (9th Cir. 2018)

  • Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., 815 F.3d 1145 (9th Cir. 2016) 

Class 4 (2/9):  Search Engines and Mass Digitization

Readings: 

• 4th ed.: pp. 609-22; 5th ed.: pp. 535-50

  • Perfect 10, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc., 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007)

  • Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2014)

• Authors Guild v. Google, Inc., 804 F.3d 202 (2d Cir. 2015)

• Orphan Works and Mass Digitization, 77 Fed. Reg. 64.555 (Oct. 22, 2012)

Note: There will be no class on 2/16 (Inclement Weather).

Class 5 (2/23):  Geographical Restrictions and Cloud Computing

Due: Short Paper 1

Readings: 

• Robert Silva, DVD Region Codes: What You Need to Know, Lifewire (Jan. 5, 2021)

• Peter K. Yu, Netflix’s VPN Ban Cannot Cure TV Studios’ Chronic Headaches, Conversation (Feb. 1, 2016)

• Spanski Enters., Inc. v. Telewizja Polska, S.A., 883 F.3d 904 (D.C. Cir. 2018)

• Carsey-Werner Co. v. British Broad. Corp., No. CV 17-8041 PA (ASx), 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33862 or 2018 WL 1083550 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 23, 2018)

• The Football Ass’n Premier League Ltd v. British Telecomms. PLC [2017] EWHC (Ch) 480 (Eng.)

Class 6 (3/2):  Copyright and Artificial Intelligence

Readings: 

• Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony, 111 U.S. 53 (1884) (4th edition: pp. 61-64; 5th edition: pp. 54-57)

• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, c. 48, § 9(3) (Eng.)

• Tia Ghose, New "Rembrandt" Painting Was Created by Computer, Live Sci. (Apr. 11, 2016)

• James Vincent, This AI-Written Pop Song Is Almost Certainly a Dire Warning for Humanity, Verge (Sept. 26, 2016)

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Public Views on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy (2020) Read pp. 19-30

• Amanda Levendowski, How Copyright Law Can Fix Artificial Intelligence's Implicit Bias Problem, 93 Wash. L. Rev. 579 (2018) Read Parts I and II

• Can Algorithms Promote Fair Use?, 14 FIU L. Rev. 329 (2020) Read Parts II and III

Class 7 (3/9):  Data Protection and the Internet of Things

Due: Short Paper 2

Readings: 

• Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) (4th edition: pp. 73-78; 5th edition: pp. 63-68)

• Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the Legal Protection of Databases, 1996 O.J. (L 77) 20 Read arts. 7-11

• Commission Staff Working Document on the Free Flow of Data and Emerging Issues of the European Data Economy, at 41, SWD(2017) 2 final Read pp. 25-45

• Data Producer’s Right and the Protection of Machine-Generated Data, 93 Tul. L. Rev. 859 (2019) Read Parts II to IV.A

Note: There will be no class on 3/16 (Spring Break).

Class 8 (3/23):  The U.S. Copyright Office Comes to Texas A&M

Guest Speaker: Kimberley Isbell, Deputy Director of Policy and International Affairs, U.S. Copyright Office (via Zoom)

Class 9 (3/30):  Data Rights Under Copyright: A Stumbling Block to Future Innovation?

Guest Speaker: Prof. Doris E. Long, UIC John Marshall Law School (via Zoom)

Class 10 (4/6):  Future of Digital Copyright

Due: First Draft

Class 11 (4/13):  Blockchain and Smart Contracts

Guest Speaker: Cole Davis, Founder, Switchchord (via Zoom)

Final Paper Due:  May 6, 2021