Course Name

ID / Section

Term

COPYRIGHT LAW

LAW - L6341 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Tim Wu

Course is not open to non-Law students.  Grade will be based on proctored final examination.  No writing credit available.

This is a general course in U.S. copyright law. Some of the specific topics we will cover are the subject matter of copyright; infringement; fair use; ownership; duration and transfer; rights and remedies of copyright owners; and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

LAW IN THE INTERNET SOCIETY

LAW - L6160 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Eblen Moglen 

This course considers the legal issues created by the current explosive global technological change through which all developed societies are passing. We will consider issues of data privacy, secrecy, and encryption, copyright and intellectual property, mass media structure and freedom of speech, and the effect of changed communications media on administrative process and democratic politics. No specialized knowledge of computers is assumed; participants will gain some acquaintance with new technologies. Multiple short papers will be required.

PATENTS

LAW - L6338 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Harold Edgar 

This course will examine both the theory and practice of patent law. It will explore the structure of this form of intellectual property protection, the relationship between information disclosure and legal protection, and the interests of patentees, competitors, and investors. We will focus not only on the principal rules that make up patent law, but also on the policies underlying these rules.

CLINICAL SEMINAR IN LAW AND THE ARTS

LAW - L9265 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Teri D. Silvers

One Semester.  5 Credits; writing credit by arrangement with Professor.   Limited to 8 students. Normally closed to LL.M.s.   An interview is required for admission.

Prerequisites: Students are required to have taken, or be enrolled concurrently, in ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: Copyright Law, strongly encouraged (L6341, Fall term); Seminar in Electronic Publishing (L9324, Fall term); Seminar in Law and the Theatre (L9090, Spring term); Seminar in Law and the Visual Arts (Art History-Law W9200, Fall term).

The Clinical Seminar in Law and the Arts provides students with a unique opportunity to observe the law's impact on the arts community. Students also gain practical experience with the attorney/client relationship and public interest lawyering, including representing clients of diverse cultural, racial and economic backgrounds. The Clinical Seminar is conducted in collaboration with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA), a not-for-profit legal services organization that provides low-cost legal assistance to nonprofit arts organizations and low-income members of the arts community.

In the clinic component of the course, students spend at least 8 hours per week working at VLA's midtown offices. They assist VLA's attorneys in advising and counseling clients, primarily in the areas of copyright, not-for-profit incorporation and tax exemption, trademarks, music industry and other entertainment-related contracts, and the rights of privacy and publicity. Students work with clients who typically seek assistance in reviewing, negotiating and/or drafting contracts; settling, litigating or otherwise resolving disputes; and drafting and filing copyright registrations, trademark applications, or the papers necessary to become a nonprofit/tax exempt or other corporate entity.

Students are a client's first contact at VLA. They gather the facts and conduct the research necessary to frame and respond to legal and other inquiries that clients bring to VLA, either in person or through VLA's Art Law Line. They assist in determining client eligibility or appropriate referrals. They participate in, and, during the term, gain increasing responsibility for interviewing and counseling clients during consultations. And they work on legal matters being handled in-house, by drafting contracts or memoranda of law or preparing client papers.

In the classroom component of the course, weekly seminars address the substantive arts and entertainment law subjects dealt with at VLA, such as copyright, not-for-profit law, and music rights, as well as the lawyering skills students are developing and practicing, such as how to interview and counsel clients, negotiate agreements and mediate disputes. There will be assigned readings throughout the semester. Students also participate in out-of-class simulated exercises on client consultations and contract negotiation.

Students are expected to devote not less than 15 hours per week overall to the Clinical Seminar, including weekly class time of about two hours and at least one full day or two half-days to work at VLA's offices.

SEMINAR, AUTHORS, ARTISTS, & PERFORMERS

LAW - L9271 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  June M. Besek

Prerequisite: Copyright Law recommended but not required.   Grades will be based on: (1) seminar participation; (2) author/industry analysis project (each student will be assigned a particular industry "player" to consider and report on); and (3) a short research paper. Minor writing credit is available; upon consultation with instructor, a longer paper may be written for major writing credit.

This seminar focuses on the role of authors, artists and performers in the creative process, and examines ways in which their treatment under intellectual property and related laws fosters -- and sometimes inhibits -- the development of new and creative literary and artistic works. Views of copyright law today are polarized, but debates and controversies have largely involved big business and user groups -- specific attention to the concerns of individual authors, artists and performers has been largely absent. This seminar will focus on the role of individual authors and artists across different fields of endeavor. We will consider (1) how law and industry practices (including the form of remuneration, authorship credit, and control over subsequent uses of works) affects individual creative endeavors; and (2) whether the law has achieved the proper balance between protecting authors' work, and making that work available to form the basis of new creative authorship by others. Topics include copyright; moral rights; performers' rights; authorship and ownership in various copyright sectors; issues of disparate bargaining power; the role of trade groups and other representatives; derivative works and "appropriation art"; the public domain; and the role of the internet and new technologies.

SEMINAR, COMPARATIVE MASS MEDIA LAW

LAW - L9682 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Richard Windfield

This seminar will study the comparative treatment of selected problems in mass media law by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights, and some transitional democracies in the former Soviet bloc. Particular attention will be given to the forms of governmental regulation of the content of the mass media, analyses of the theories of free expression, and permissible regulation that are representative of several legal systems. The seminar will consider, system-by-system, the national security/free press dilemma: society's goals of protecting the rights of the mass media to cover and criticize government while at the same time organizing an effective form of self-rule; the paradox of unregulated speech coexisting with the goals of national defense and stable self-government; and the doctrines and mechanisms deployed in various legal systems to suppress the mass media, ostensibly in the name of security and effective governance.

The course will address, comparatively, other regulatory problems including defamation, seditious libel, privacy, election coverage, hate speech, incitement, fair trial/free press controversies, broadcasting, the Internet, and the use of prior restraints and contempt. The course aims in part to enable students, by reverse projection, to understand and reflect critically on the distinguishing features of the American system of free expression. Students will read cases, legislation, and essays and write a paper covering at least two legal systems.

SEMINAR, FALSE ADVERTISING

LAW - L8033 - 001

Fall

Instructor:   Harold Weinberger

The last fifteen years have witnessed an explosion of false advertising litigation between competitors relating to consumer products, over the counter medications and more recently, with the advent of direct to consumer advertising, prescription drugs as well. These cases have involved all forms of communication, including television commercials, print advertising, promotional materials aimed at professionals, the internet and even face-to-face oral statements. This seminar will be devoted to an in-depth exploration of false advertising law, with particular emphasis on litigation under the Lanham Act.

Following a discussion of the boundaries between commercial and non-commercial speech and the development of the federal remedy for false advertising, we will explore such topics as: what is a literally false claim; the use of consumer surveys to prove that implied claims are being made; how literally false claims are proven false; the analysis of clinical and product tests used to support product claims, including issues of design of tests and analysis of test results; the use of demonstrations in commercials; and issues relating to remedies, including temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, damages and corrective advertising. In addition to some key cases that will be provided online, the materials for the course will consist of expert reports, surveys, testimony and other documents from cases that have actually been litigated in the courts involving products as diverse as potato chips, contact lenses, analgesics and breast cancer drugs. In the last three weeks of the course, students will be divided into groups representing two parties in a case and further divided to address specific issues relating to each party's position. A paper will be required, which will be in the form of an opening statement or summation of one the party's positions. During the semester, one or two other short papers will be required on more discrete subjects such as analyses of particular surveys and expert testimony. There is no final examination.

There are no prerequisites for this seminar, other than completion of first year courses. Although the Lanham Act is also a trademark statute, the body of law that has developed in the false advertising area is quite distinct. There is also no need for a scientific background despite what may seem like considerable scientific content. Indeed, one focus of the course is to illustrate how attorneys who are themselves laymen in these areas can simplify complex scientific issues for judges and juries who may have no relevant background at all.

SEMINAR, LAW AND SPORTS

LAW - L9110 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Robert Kheel

(writing credit).  Knowledge of American sports highly recommended.

Selected topics from the history and current affairs of professional and amateur sports. This seminar considers both the background and present status of various antitrust issues, labor relations problems, tax matters and other areas of interest. Also considered are the structure and operations of professional sports leagues and amateur organizations, the authority of sports commissioners and other authorities, collective bargaining agreements with sports unions, grievance and arbitration processes, professional player contract matters, broadcasting arrangements, and legislation affecting sports. Attention is given to the special circumstances of sports and efforts to apply and adapt legal theory and practice to this unique environment. A paper is required.

SEMINAR, LAW AND THE FILM INDUSTRY

LAW - L9270 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Thomas Selz

(minor writing credit).  This seminar will explore various issues involved in the production, distribution and exhibition of feature films. It will explore the tensions between economic considerations and the unpredictable intangibles of creative success. Using case law, newspaper articles, union agreements, and sample form agreements, the course will consider industry structure, creative control, credit, compensation, grant of rights, representations and warranties, and financing alternatives. There is a heavy emphasis on class participation; there are two writing assignments, and an in-class negotiation of hypothetical offers, in lieu of a final. Class size is limited to 16 students; students not there for the first or second class will be dropped to make room for those on the waiting list.

SEMINAR, LAW AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

LAW - L9272 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  I. Fred Koenigsberg

Prerequisite: For JD's: L6341 (Copyright Law). For LLM's: equivalent course plus strong fluency in English.   Students' grades will be determined by their class participation, their performance on a mock negotiation or litigation assignment, and their written paper.   Minor writing credit is available with approval of instructor.

As intangible intellectual property rights form the core of all relationships in the music industry, an understanding of those legal rights is essential for an understanding of the workings of that industry. The course will therefore examine, in detail, each of the legal areas involved in bringing music to the public:

First, we will undertake an overview of specific legal rights involved in music, including copyright, trademark, and the right of publicity. Materials will include statutes and cases.

Second, we will conduct a detailed analysis of the relationships in the music industry and the application of intellectual property rights to each such relationship, including those of the songwriter/composer-music publisher; the performing rights society- music user; the copyright owner - musical theater producer; the music publisher - record company; the performing artist - record company; the record company - distribution chain; and the copyright owner - infringer. Materials will include cases, "standard" agreements, and supplementary written materials.

Third, students will conduct a series of mock negotiations, analyses of, and arguments in infringement cases, that will be critiqued as they unfold by the professor and attorneys working in the music industry.

Fourth, we will study and discuss current legislative issues and future trends, including the legislative response to, and future of, on-line music uses.

SEMINAR, LIFE, LIBERTY & LIABILITY
IN THE DIGITAL MILLENIUM

LAW - L9323 - 001

Fall

Instructor:  Hillel Parness

A basic understanding of intellectual property law is recommended, but not required.   Students cannot receive credit for both this course and S. Secondary Liability on the Internet.

This seminar explores the ongoing development of intellectual property laws and rights - both legislated and court-determined - and the issues and challenges particular to the interactive, digital age. The seminar will explore not only on the impact of law upon the Internet and digital technologies, but, and perhaps more importantly, how the new technologies are, in turn, redefining intellectual property law itself, with a particular focus on changing attitudes toward primary, contributory and vicarious liability.

Among the topics to be explored are: peer-to-peer file sharing, the Sony Betamax case, cyber-defamation, rebroadcasting television, Internet VCRs, digital video recorders, MP3 devices, Internet radio, auction services, invasive pop-up advertising, Nazi memorabilia, and the cross-border application of intellectual property laws.

Due to the rapidly changing nature of this area of law, however, students are encouraged to bring new issues to class each week for discussion.  Students' grades will be based upon class participation (which may involve a short in-class presentation) and a final paper.

Course Name

ID / Section

Term

COMPARATIVE TRADEMARK & UNFAIR COMPETITION LAW

LAW - L9265 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Jane C. Ginsburg and Lionel Bently

COPYRIGHT LAW

LAW - L6341 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Jane C. Ginsburg

A general course in copyright law, covering such subjects as: bases for the protection of works of authorship; criteria of protection; ownership and transfer of copyright interests; infringement and fair use; application of copyright law to new technologies; and related constitutional issues.

PRINCIPLES OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

LAW - L6178 - 001

Spring

Instructors:  Thomas Merrill and Clarisa Long

Upperclass students and LLM candidates may take the course only if space permits.  Evaluated by proctored final examination.  Writing credit not available.

This class is designed to provide an introduction to the subject of intellectual property. No attempt will be made to offer a survey of the law in any particular area such as copyright, patent, or trademark. Instead, the class will focus on a series of discrete topics in intellectual property that raise conceptual issues about the nature of intellectual property rights and the rationale for having such rights. One issue of pervasive concern will be how our notions about ordinary property rights change when applied to intellectual property.

Topics may include: definitions of intellectual property; contemporary theoretical justifications for intellectual property rights; the source of intellectual property rights; the evolution of intellectual property rights; comparison of the various forms of intellectual property; the internal structure of individual forms; the optimal strength and duration of such rights; the boundaries of intellectual property with contract, social norms, and self-help; and remedies.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS LAW

LAW - L6700 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Lance Liebman

The course will consider the legal structure for all information-delivery technologies: wireline and wireless telephone, cable, broadcast, and satellite services. It will consider the legal issues raised by government attempts to regulate those technologies, particularly as they are now converging.

Topics will include constitutional limits on the regulation of speech, takings issues, fundamental antitrust issues, the roles of the relevant administrative agencies, the role of courts in administering consent decrees, and the ability of government to regulate complex and quickly changing technologies.

CLINICAL SEMINAR IN LAW AND THE ARTS

LAW - L9265 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Teri D. Silvers

One Semester.  5 Credits; writing credit by arrangement with Professor.  Limited to 8 students. Normally closed to LL.M.s.   An interview is required for admission.

Prerequisites: Students are required to have taken, or be enrolled concurrently, in ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: Copyright Law, strongly encouraged (L6341, Fall term); Seminar in Electronic Publishing (L9324, Fall term); Seminar in Law and the Theatre (L9090, Spring term); Seminar in Law and the Visual Arts (Art History-Law W9200, Fall term).

The Clinical Seminar in Law and the Arts provides students with a unique opportunity to observe the law's impact on the arts community. Students also gain practical experience with the attorney/client relationship and public interest lawyering, including representing clients of diverse cultural, racial and economic backgrounds. The Clinical Seminar is conducted in collaboration with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA), a not-for-profit legal services organization that provides low-cost legal assistance to nonprofit arts organizations and low-income members of the arts community.

In the clinic component of the course, students spend at least 8 hours per week working at VLA's midtown offices. They assist VLA's attorneys in advising and counseling clients, primarily in the areas of copyright, not-for-profit incorporation and tax exemption, trademarks, music industry and other entertainment-related contracts, and the rights of privacy and publicity. Students work with clients who typically seek assistance in reviewing, negotiating and/or drafting contracts; settling, litigating or otherwise resolving disputes; and drafting and filing copyright registrations, trademark applications, or the papers necessary to become a nonprofit/tax exempt or other corporate entity.

Students are a client's first contact at VLA. They gather the facts and conduct the research necessary to frame and respond to legal and other inquiries that clients bring to VLA, either in person or through VLA's Art Law Line. They assist in determining client eligibility or appropriate referrals. They participate in, and, during the term, gain increasing responsibility for interviewing and counseling clients during consultations. And they work on legal matters being handled in-house, by drafting contracts or memoranda of law or preparing client papers.

In the classroom component of the course, weekly seminars address the substantive arts and entertainment law subjects dealt with at VLA, such as copyright, not-for-profit law, and music rights, as well as the lawyering skills students are developing and practicing, such as how to interview and counsel clients, negotiate agreements and mediate disputes. There will be assigned readings throughout the semester. Students also participate in out-of-class simulated exercises on client consultations and contract negotiation.

Students are expected to devote not less than 15 hours per week overall to the Clinical Seminar, including weekly class time of about two hours and at least one full day or two half-days to work at VLA's offices.

SEMINAR, ADVANCED PATENTS

LAW - L8055 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Harold Edgar and Henry Lebowitz

(writing credit).  Prerequisite: Completion of Technological Properties (L6490) or Patents (L6338) or the instructor's permission, which will be granted based on the student's knowledge of patent law acquired during prior work in the field.

This research seminar will focus on current issues in patent law taken both from pending Federal Circuit appeals and from proposed legislative reforms of the patent law. Among other issues, we shall consider issues of fact and law in construction of patent claims and proposals to create a prior user's privilege against infringement.

Each student will prepare a research paper.

SEMINAR, ADVANCED TOPICS IN COPYRIGHT

LAW - L8052 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Jane C. Ginsburg and June M. Besek

The seminar on Advanced Topics in Copyright will address current, often controversial issues in copyright law and policy, e.g., secondary liability, peer-to-peer file sharing, technological protection measures and their effect on copyright rights and privileges, moral rights, the role of the public domain, and constitutional preemption. We will meet weekly from 4:10-6:00 on Tuesdays. We will have speakers for most sessions during the term, usually two speakers each week to provide contrasting views of the subject(s) at hand.

In most cases we have arranged to have the speakers give lunchtime talks to the CLS community. Seminar participants will be required to attend the lunchtime talks. Those talks will undoubtedly be more general than the seminar discussions (due to time constraints - they have to finish in an hour - and also because attendees will likely not have read background material, as seminar participants will do). Because the students in the seminar will be attending several hours of lunchtime talks, the seminar will actually meet 11 times during the term.

Students will write four short papers over the term, corresponding to substantive class sessions of their choice. The papers will be due by noon the day before the seminar meeting to which they relate, and posted to the website for the benefit of other students. The papers should reflect the students' views of the readings assigned. Grades will be based on the papers and on participation in seminar discussions.

L6341, Copyright law (or, for LLMs, the equivalent in their home countries) is a prerequisite.

SEMINAR, ART, CULTURAL  HERITAGE AND THE LAW

LAW - 8671-001

Spring

Instructor:  Jane Levine

This course will examine laws and legal principles relevant to art and cultural heritage. The course will consider the substantive case law and statutes keeping, paying attention to the unique conceptual and policy themes relating to the legal treatment of art and cultural heritage. The course will progress through a series of selected topics, including:

Museums: we will address the legal obligations and liabilities of museums in relation to the acquisition and deaccession of objects of fine art and cultural heritage.

Art Dealers and the Market: students will study the legal definitions of art dealers, auctioneers and other players in the art market, and the interplay among laws regulating the art and antiquities markets.

Authenticity and Quality: the class will examine the legal ramifications, civil and criminal, when art and cultural heritage works turn out to be fake, forged, or otherwise not in conformance with represented attributes and characteristics.

Title and Theft: we will explore laws and rules governing the identification and recovery of stolen art and cultural heritage works through civil litigation and criminal prosecutions.

War, Art and Cultural Heritage: using World War II and the Iraq war as examples, we will focus attention on special issues and considerations present when looting and theft of art and cultural heritage takes place in time of and in the aftermath of war.

International Issues: in this portion of the course we will study laws relating to the treatment of art and objects of cultural heritage in the international context, including foreign national ownership of cultural objects, and the laws applicable to the looting, taking, transfer and possession of cultural heritage objects taken from out of the ground without permission.

United States Archaeological Resources: we will study pertinent federal legislation, such as the Antiquities Act of 1906, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, the class will look at the criminal case law under ARPA, involving questions concerning criminal intent, loss, the concept of archaeological value, and sentencing. State statutes applicable to archaeological material and cultural heritage will also be considered. The class will consider statutes and cases concerning underwater archaeology and shipwrecks, including the Abandoned Shipwreck Act.

Native Cultural Heritage: the course will examine issues relating to cultural heritage of indigenous people, the pervasive problems of looting and theft from Native American sites in the United States, and elsewhere in the world; we will study cases decided before and after passage of Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), such as the matter involving the so called "Kennewick man."

Students will be evaluated based on written exercises and/or problem-sets which will be assigned throughout the semester and class participation. There will be no final paper or exam.

SEMINAR, COMPUTERS, PRIVACY & THE LAW

LAW - L9325 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Eben Moglen

This seminar will consider some of the issues defining the relationship between our constitutional order and the technological revolution through which we are living. Among the problems we will discuss are: encryption and communications privacy in relation to law enforcement and government intelligence gathering; the constitutional basis of "intellectual property" in the context of novel technological structures; the "new media" and the First Amendment; and constitutional sexual privacy in cyberspace. Some familiarity with the basic technology of the network, including use of a Web browser, will be necessary in order to participate effectively.

SEMINAR, EMERGING THEORIES
IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION

LAW - L9370 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Robert Clarida

This seminar will explore the rapidly expanding legal terrain that Congress and the courts are discovering beyond the outer edges of copyright. The course will encourage students to think critically about issues such as: (1) how the law might (and whether it should) protect data and other materials that are not eligible for protection under existing law, through the application of contract principles, common law trespass to chattels, and "hot news" misappropriation, or through sui generis legislation; (2) how copyright law might be constrained by the Constitution, and/or by the Copyright Act's own internal public policy considerations; (3) how the proliferation of user-generated and user-modified content online intersects with existing law; and (4) how the Supreme Court's Betamax precedent might (or might not) protect providers of copying technology in a networked online environment.

As to each topic, the seminar will review relevant decisions, statutes and scholarly articles in an effort define the precise questions raised and the advantages and disadvantages of alternative approaches to resolving them. An overriding concern for all of the topics is the public policy justification for restricting the circulation of materials, or interfering with other forms of conduct, that traditional I.P. doctrines have left largely unregulated. Invited guests from academia and private practice will add their practical and theoretical insights to the discussion on several occasions. In weeks 11, 12 and 13 each student will present a draft paper for discussion and critique, on a topic drawn from the assigned readings. A final written version of the paper will be due at the end of the semester. Grades will be determined by each student's class participation, oral presentation, and final paper.

SEMINAR, FEDERAL COURT LITIGATION:
TRADEMARK & COPYRIGHT

LAW - L8051 - 001

Spring

Instructor:  Richard Lehv

This is a "hands-on" course in litigating trademark, copyright, false advertising or right of publicity cases in federal court. Open only to students who have taken the introductory course in Trademark Law or Copyright Law (or both), it is taught from the perspective of an experienced trademark and copyright litigator. It should be of interest to any student who seeks to understand how intellectual property litigation works, particularly those who plan a career in the area.

We will start with pre-litigation considerations, such as investigating the defendant's activities and sending a "cease and desist" letter, and follow the litigation process through trial and appeal. Assuming that the goal of any litigation is to achieve the "just, speedy and inexpensive" resolution of the dispute, Fed. R. Civ. P. 1, we will focus on techniques for achieving those ends and problems that can impede them. In addition to reviewing and discussing cases, students will be given the opportunity to litigate realistic hypothetical cases by, for example, conducting the deposition or cross-examination of a survey expert or musicology expert, or presenting the trial testimony of a witness who allegedly was confused by two similar, competitive pack