Daniel is a Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is part of EFF's intellectual property team and focuses on substantive patent reform. Before joining EFF, Daniel was a Residential Fellow at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet & Society where he represented writers, painters, filmmakers, and others who rely on fair use to create their art and scholarship.
Daniel previously practiced at Keker & Van Nest, LLP, where he represented technology clients in patent and antitrust litigation. He served as a law clerk to Justice Susan Kenny of the Federal Court of Australia and to Judge William K. Sessions, III of the District of Vermont. Daniel has a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Western Australia, an M.A. in philosophy from Rutgers, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Daniel is the author of The Tragicomedy of the Surfer’s Commons (9 Deakin L. Rev. 655) and Conflict and Solidarity: The Legacy of Jeff D. (17 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 499).
A Glance Inside The Clearance Culture
By Daniel Nazer • April 26, 2012 at 1:33 pm
The clearance culture is the set of norms and practices within the entertainment industry that mandates—whether or not the law actually requires it—that every scrap of copyrighted or trademarked material be cleared with the original rights-holder. While copyrighted material often does need to be licensed (e.g. soundtrack music), the clearance culture imposes burdens well beyond the law and has become a self-perpetuating and self-serving system of self-censorship. Read more » about A Glance Inside The Clearance Culture
Andy Warhol Foundation Requests Argument Time in Cariou v. Prince
By Daniel Nazer • April 17, 2012 at 10:24 pm
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has filed a motion with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit requesting that the court allow it ten minutes of oral argument as amicus curiae in the case of Cariou v. Read more » about Andy Warhol Foundation Requests Argument Time in Cariou v. Prince
A Rosenhan Experiment for the PTO
By Daniel Nazer • March 8, 2012 at 12:49 pm
How accurate is the Patent and Trademark Office? Can its examiners tell good patents from bad? Read more » about A Rosenhan Experiment for the PTO
Could Microsoft Own Crowdsourcing?
By Daniel Nazer • September 28, 2011 at 11:20 pm
The patent application has a simple title: Crowdsourcing.
Filed on May 18, 2009, the application is assigned to Microsoft and claims a “computer-implemented” crowdsourcing method. If construed broadly, the claims could cover a lot of networked crowdsourcing. Folks have noticed that Facebook has a pending application for crowdsourced translations. But Microsoft's application has, at least so far, slipped under the radar. Read more » about Could Microsoft Own Crowdsourcing?
Blurring the Situation
By Daniel Nazer • August 18, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Abercrombie & Fitch has offered to pay Jersey Shore cast member Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino not to wear its clothing. I hesitate to give this publicity stunt more publicity. But the coverage from the New York Times includes a garbled account of fair use law. The article spreads the damaging myth of the clearance culture: the false view that artists need approval for every single item of trademarked or copyrighted material appearing in a work. Read more » about Blurring the Situation