Anthony Falzone

Prior to joining Pinterest, Tony co-founded CIS’s Fair Use Project, which he led as its Executive Director from 2006 to 2012. In the course of his work at CIS, Tony represented conductor Lawrence Golan in his challenge to Congress's constitutional power to remove works from the public domain, which he argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. He also represented visual artist Shepard Fairey in copyright litigation against The Associated Press over Fairey's "Obama Hope" posters, and represented RDR Books as trial counsel in its copyright and Lanham Act dispute with J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers over the Harry Potter Lexicon. Those cases followed notable victories on behalf of the producers and distributors of the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed in litigation against Yoko Ono Lennon and EMI Records, on behalf of Professor Carol Shloss in her lawsuit against the Estate of James Joyce. Tony also represented a wide array of organizations as amicus curiae in federal appeals courts throughout the country, including The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Creative Commons, and the American Library Association. In addition to litigating, Tony advised dozens of documentary filmmakers, writers, artists and other content creators on fair use and other intellectual property issues.

As a Lecturer in Law, Tony has taught both lecture and clinical courses at Stanford Law School, including Fair Use in Film, Advanced Topics in Cyberlaw, and the Cyberlaw / Fair Use Clinic.

Prior to his work at Stanford, Tony was a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Bingham McCutchen. He is a 1997 graduate of Harvard Law School, and was a law clerk to the Hon. Barry T. Moskowitz, U.S. District Judge, Southern District of California.

Golan v. Holder Argument Recap

By Anthony Falzone • October 11, 2011 at 3:16 pm

It was my great honor to argue for the petitioners in Golan v. Holder before the Supreme Court of the United States last week. SCOTUS blog has an excellent recap of the argument on its case page, and the Court has posted the transcript and audio recording.

Argument coverage from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post all point to Jimi Hendrix as the star of the show. Op / Ed pieces in the New York Times and the Huffington Post (here and here) do a nice job of explaining what's at stake.

Our synopsis of the case is here, along with all of the parties' briefs. We expect a decision by June. Read more » about Golan v. Holder Argument Recap

UPDATED: Golan v. Holder Merits Brief Explains Why Congress Is Not Allowed To Privatize The Public Domain

By Anthony Falzone • September 6, 2011 at 3:02 pm

UPDATE: The government's brief and our reply are now posted below. Oral argument is scheduled for October 5. Today we filed our opening brief in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging Congress's power to remove works from the public domain. For 200 years, the Copyright Act placed a huge array of works into the public domain through a combination of term limits and eligibility requirements. It created a vast reservoir of knowledge, learning and artistic creativity that millions of us use every day. Since creating the public domain in 1790, Congress amended the Copyright Act again and again to cover new types of works and lengthen copyright terms. But each time it did so, it left the public domain completely intact. It respected the fact that the public domain is public property, and cannot not be taken away. That changed in 1994, when Congress passed a law that removed a vast body of foreign works from the public domain. This body of works included symphonies by Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinksy and Dmitri Shostakovich; books by C.S. Lewis, Virginia Woolf and H.G. Wells; films by Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir; and artwork by M.C. Escher and Pablo Picasso. The Register of Copyrights estimated the works affected by this law "probably number in the millions." Congress took the rights in these works from the American public and handed them over to foreign authors and their heirs in the express hope that foreign countries would reciprocate by giving U.S. copyright owners new rights in works that were in the public domains of those foreign countries. In other words, Congress decided to give away the public's property -- and the important speech and expression rights that go with it -- in the hope this might put more money in the pocket of U.S. copyright owners. In the brief we filed today, we explain why the Constitution does not allow Congress to privatize the public domain and why doing so here violated the First Amendment rights of our clients and the American public. We expect the Court to hear the case this fall, with a decision to follow several months later. Read more » about UPDATED: Golan v. Holder Merits Brief Explains Why Congress Is Not Allowed To Privatize The Public Domain

Supreme Court grants cert. in Golan v. Holder

By Anthony Falzone • March 7, 2011 at 7:26 am

The Supreme Court granted our cert. petition this morning! Both claims (Progress Clause and First Amendment) will be reviewed on the merits. SCOTUSblog calls it a "major test of copyright power." Read more » about Supreme Court grants cert. in Golan v. Holder

(Updated) Golan v. Holder Heads To Supreme Court

By Anthony Falzone • February 2, 2011 at 10:16 am

(Updated) San Francisco's de Young Museum Bans Sketching In Special Exhibition, Thumbs Nose At Centuries Of Artistic Tradition

By Anthony Falzone • December 14, 2010 at 6:15 pm

Details of the silliness are here. Best part of the story is the photograph of an artist setting up an easel and full array of paints in the Louvre. The French win again.

UPDATE: The Assistant Director of Communications from the de Young contacted me this morning, and explained that one of the reasons the museum adopted the no-sketch policy for this special exhibition is the volume of people who want to see it. Seems to me that implicates even more interesting questions: What is the point of the exhibition, and how important is it to provide an opportunity for a deeper and more lengthy interaction with the works on display? Read more » about (Updated) San Francisco's de Young Museum Bans Sketching In Special Exhibition, Thumbs Nose At Centuries Of Artistic Tradition

Anthony Falzone

Driverless Car Summit

Vehicle Automation: TRB @ Stanford

52nd Annual Workshop on Transportation Law

Big Data and Privacy: Making Ends Meet

Anthony Falzone

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