Academic Copyright ~ Elizabeth Townsend Gard

Berkeley and Stanford

The audio for the IP Scholars conference is now up at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/institutes/bclt/ipsc/schedule.html.  A lot of interesting papers.  My paper was on Saturday at 10:30.

And, I will appearing for the full hour on Wednesday on Stanford's “Hearsay Culture,” on KZSU-FM.  It's David Levine's show, and it will be available on iTunes.

Chad Vadar on YouTube

Ok.  One more post.  With the Google-YouTube deal in the news, here is one from YouTube-- a short film depicting "Chad Vadar" as a night manager at a market.  Fair use?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogIqayRDr4w

Another Fair Use Story

"Why You're Not Seeing Video Of Cory Lidle Playing Baseball"  This story is about CBS news and others faced with the question of whether it is a fair use to show images of Cory Lidle (a baseball player who recently died in an airplane crash) without "without the express written consent of Major League Baseball. "   A nice example of news (and big news) media unsure...

Fair Use and Free Speech

Fair Use and Free Speech explains the Documentary Filmmaker's Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use. It shows when and how it is legal to use copyrighted material within a documentary film. It’s a powerful tool for media criticism and freedom of _expression. For more information visit centerforsocialmedia.org. Here is another - a bit longer, but explains the "Best Practices" from the Center for Social Media.

Eyes on the Fair Use of the Prize

I'm just at the end of teaching fair use in my IP survey. I'm gathering some video, and thought I would post this one. It is interesting that images of civil rights are transposed into a copyright context. Very interesting...and powerful.

Jessica Litman coming to Seattle U.

Jessica Litman is coming to Seattle University School of Law this week, and speaking about "Personal Use" in copyright.  The paper is amazing.  (It's available at Jessica's website at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jdlitman/)

She really uses personal examples really well in the paper, and got me to thinking about autobiography and legal writing.   I very much subscribe to the idea that autobiographical examples (whether fictional or not) are a great tool for connecting the material to the student/reader/audience.  But doing it successfully is not always easy.  Litman's writing does this with such grace.  And I've been thinking why is this -- her language is straightforward, her examples are not complicated...but that is not it -- I think they are examples we can identify with--is that the real goal - if so, then autobiographical examples must be targeted to the audience.  I have always thought of them as trying to explain something the audience may not necesssarily connect, and therefore might need a bridge.  Litman's muse is examples of things we all do -- getting dressed (not her example, but mine), which further enlightens the relevant law (or problems with the law).

Just a few thoughts on writing and struggles to connect in a meaningful and memorable way.

A quick update

Just a quick update, and will soon blog for real....

My non-resident fellowship at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School was renewed for a third year, which is very nice.  I think I will focus this year on Second Life as a lab for teaching Property in the 1L setting.  I'm still trying to work out the details, but my thoughts are to bring my 1L course into Second Life and explore questions property in viritual space.  Is there adverse possession in virtual property?  What about trover?  Are there open spaces? Easements?  Again, still in the planning stages, but I think it might be a way to review modern concepts of property, kind of Locke's concept of "America"...

And at some point, I'm going to be appearing on David Levine's radio show, so that should be fun.

The WIPIP 2006 conference in Pittsburgh was great.  Very nice people, and extremely useful comments...

And I'm excited to be participating in Peter Yu's "What If" conference at Michigan State in the Spring, which asks what would have happened "if" things (whatever that may be) had been different.  I'm not sure if we are supposed to keep our "what ifs" secret (he wouldn't let us know what the other "what ifs" are yet).  So, I will wait to post my "what if".

And, of course, the law review articles.  The podcasting piece at the Journal of Internet Law should be out any day, and the unpublished works and the public domain piece at Cardozo Arts & Ent LJ should be out in November.  The third piece I've been working on has been accepted, but now I am waiting to hear back from some other journals.  So, we will see.

And of course, the AALS is coming soon.  Oh, goodness.  So, the reports will continue.  I will hopefully start blogging more regularly soon again.