Week 3: First Amendment: Prohibiting Speech – Digital Copyright


Copyright law has expanded drastically over the last 50 years. While copyright was created to stimulate innovation and creativity, it is increasingly used to quash news reporting, creative expression, and cultural critique. Moreover, as copyright law has expanded, the fair use exception continues to contract. This class will consider the growth of copyright and the restrictions it places on the First Amendment.

Required readings:

• U.S. Const. Amend. I, available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html#amendmenti.
• Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003), available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/01-618.ZS.html.
• Neil Weinstock Netanel, Copyright’s Paradox (Oxford University Press, 2008), Ch. 2 & Ch. 4, pp. 13-29, 54-80, available in course packet.
• Jessica Litman, Digital Copyright (Prometheus Books, 2006), Ch. 6, pp. 89-100, available in course packet.
• Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture, pp. 116-147, 170-173, available at http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Lessig/Free_Culture/Free%20Culture.htm#p116#nav.
• Jack Balkin, Golan v. Gonzales – How the First Amendment Limits Copyright Law, Balkinization, Sept. 5, 2007, http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/09/golan-v-gonzales-how-first-amendment.html.