{"id":5853,"date":"2009-06-28T21:51:57","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T02:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=5853"},"modified":"2009-06-28T21:51:57","modified_gmt":"2009-06-29T02:51:57","slug":"copyright-law-in-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2009\/06\/copyright-law-in-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Copyright Law in Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BostonIrene’s post<\/a> and Kali’s post<\/a> got me thinking: What is it that interests me about copyright law? The answer is somewhat surprising, given that I specialize in copyright law: nothing<\/em>, per se. I’m not especially attracted to the doctrine of copyright law more than a number of other subjects, such as torts or contracts or even securities regulation. Indeed, as cocktail party conversation goes, I always cringe a little when I say I specialize in copyright, because it often leads to a discussion of some particular controversy in which I am forced to admit at the end that I have no idea what the answer is, as the statute is vague and there are cases on both sides (or maybe no cases at all). At least there are answers to what constitutes insider trading.<\/p>\n

What interests me about copyright is not copyright law in itself, but copyright law as a subject. Over the past few years, I’ve come to realize that my interest in copyright law and Internet law predates law school. It’s part of my general interest in ideological transitions, and in particular turbulent<\/em> ideological transitions. I’m interested in copyright law for the same reason I’m interested in vigilantes<\/a> and alterations in foreign policy<\/a> and systems accidents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of these phenomena result from sudden shifts in the contextual terrain that expose the limits of the prevailing mental maps\u2014the ideological frameworks\u2014of one or more groups in society. Conflicts arise that can’t be resolved according to the old rules. Groups are brought into conflict that previously were kept separate.<\/p>\n

This is what is going on in copyright law right now, although hopefully with less catastrophic consequences than a plane crash or lynch mob. The technology of publishing has changed drastically in the last 30 years, collapsing the boundary between two separate spheres: publishers and consumers. Now one set of rules and norms must apply to everyone. No one, in my opinion, has really adjusted to this new terrain. And, like most cases of boundary collapse, the friction between the two formerly separate spheres is generating a considerable amount of heat. Representatives of both sides believe that their most cherished liberties are in peril.<\/p>\n

That’s<\/em> what interests me about copyright law\u2014it’s a conflict brought on by a sudden transition, one symptom of which is doomsday rhetoric seemingly out of all proportion to the stakes involved. And that is one salient feature of the copyright debates occurring\u00a0 now. Some of my current work, which I’ll discuss in future posts, attempts to figure out why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Irene’s post and Kali’s post got me thinking: What is it that interests me about copyright law? The answer is somewhat surprising, given that I specialize in copyright law: nothing, per se. I’m not especially attracted to the doctrine of copyright law more than a number of other subjects, such as torts or contracts or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}