The Centre for Innovation Law and Policy
Presents Guest Speaker
Jessica Litman
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Topic: Copyright Liberties and the "Trumpet Problem"
Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Time: 2:10 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Place: Solarium FA2, 84 Queen's Park
Description: Under the conventional paradigm of copyright statutory interpretation, unlicensed uses of copyrighted works are deemed infringing unless excused. I argue that that rubric was never accurate, and that relying on it has distorted our thinking. In particular, it has encouraged us to give short shrift to the core importance in the copyright scheme of reading, listening, viewing, watching, playing and using copyrighted works. For most of its history, copyright law was designed to maximize the opportunities for non-exploitative enjoyment of copyrighted works in order to encourage reading, listening, watching and their cousins. I call the freedom to engage in those activities "copyright liberties", and argue that they are both deeply embedded in copyright's design and crucial to its promotion of the Progress of Science. Recent efforts to enable copyright owners to control indirect commercial exploitation of their works have severely undermined historic copyright liberties, and there is a real danger that we will forget them, and, having forgotten them, will lose them.
Bio: Jessica Litman is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she teaches copyright law, trademark law and Internet law. Professor Litman is the author of the book Digital Copyright, as well as many articles on intellectual property, the public domain and information law. She has testified before Congress and the White House Information Infrastructure Task Force's Working Group on Intellectual Property. She is a trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA and the chair of the American Association of Law Schools Section on Intellectual Property. She is a member of the Intellectual Property and Internet Committee of the ACLU and the advisory board of Cyberspace Law Abstracts. Professor Litman has a B.A. from Reed College, an M.F.A. from Southern Methodist University, a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, and clerked for 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Betty Fletcher.
RSVPs are appreciated.
RSVPs and enquiries to: centre.ilp@utoronto.ca or 416-978-3724
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