The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School is a leader in the study of the law and policy around the Internet and other emerging technologies.
Copyright and Fair Use
A healthy copyright system must balance the need to provide strong economic incentives through exclusive rights with the need to protect important public interests like free speech and expression. Fair use is foundational to that balance. It's role is to prevent copyright from stifling the creativity it is supposed to foster, and from imposing other burdens that would inhibit rather than promote the creation and spread of knowledge and learning.
The Fair Use Project (FUP) was founded in 2006 to provide legal support to a range of projects designed to clarify, and extend, the boundaries of fair use in order to enhance creative freedom and protect important public rights. It is the only organization in the country dedicated specifically to providing free and comprehensive legal representation to authors, filmmakers, artists, musicians and other content creators who face unmerited copyright claims, or other improper restrictions on their expressive interests. The FUP has litigated important cases across the country, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, and worked with scores of filmmakers and other content creators to secure the unimpeded release of their work.
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Non-Residential Fellow
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Brett Frischmann
Affiliate ScholarBrett Frischmann’s expertise is in intellectual property and internet law. After clerking for the Honorable Fred I. Parker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and practicing at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, DC, he joined the Loyola University Chicago law faculty in 2002. He has held visiting appointments at Cornell and Fordham. Read more » about Brett Frischmann
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Lauren Gelman
Non-Residential FellowLauren is an experienced attorney, frequent speaker and start-up advisor who has worked in the field of Internet law and policy since 1995. She is the founder of BlurryEdge Strategies, a legal and strategy consulting firm located in San Francisco that advises technology companies and investors on cutting-edge legal issues. Lauren previously led the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School and taught at the Law School and the Department of Engineering. Read more » about Lauren Gelman
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Jennifer Granick
Director of Civil LibertiesJennifer Granick is the Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. Jennifer returns to Stanford after stints as General Counsel of entertainment company Worldstar Hip Hop and as counsel with the internet boutique firm of Zwillgen PLLC. Before that, she was the Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Jennifer practices, speaks and writes about computer crime and security, electronic surveillance, consumer privacy, data protection, copyright, trademark and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Read more » about Jennifer Granick
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The Battle over Metatagging in Germany is Over
By Zohar Efroni • December 4, 2006 at 7:12 am
Earlier this year the German Federal High Court held trademarks metatagging unlawful. The “impuls” holding (in German) available for download here. According to the full decision published recently, metatagging in the hidden source code of the web page is “trademark use” giving rise to infringement liability.
The Court further held that such use created likelihood of confusion (under a theory similar to the U.S. “initial interest confusion” doctrine), as the tag used by defendant was identical to the mark of plaintiff, both offering health insurance services. In other words, it did not matter that users could immediately be de-confused by clicking on defendant’s link and realizing that this is not where they had wanted to go. Read more » about The Battle over Metatagging in Germany is Over
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BT Tours With Thomas Dolby
By Shireen A. Barday • December 3, 2006 at 7:10 pm
On November 27th, BT and Thomas Dolby opened their “Sonic Duel for Virtual Supremacy” Tour at Red Devil in San Francisco. BT was kind enough to invite us, and the show was fantastic.
BT performed “This Binary Universe,” which you can listen to online at: thisbinaryuniverse.com.
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Arguments in BT's Summary Judgment Motion
By Shireen A. Barday • December 3, 2006 at 7:06 pm
On November 3, the motion for summary judgment on behalf of Brian Transeau (BT) was argued before Hon. William H. Pauley, federal district court judge for the Southern District of New York.
Plaintiffs conceded BT had no access to the copyrighted work that they allege he copied. They therefore attempted to prove that BT’s work in “Aparthenonia” was so "strikingly similar" to plaintiffs’ work as to preclude the possibility of independent creation.
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An Encouraging Fair Use Decision From The Second Circuit
By Anthony Falzone • November 28, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Here is a very encouraging case from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Blanch v. Koons.
Visual artist Jeff Koons is no stranger to the courts. Specializing in what some call appropriation art, he borrows pop-culture images in order to comment on the culture that generates and consumes them. This has gotten him sued more than once. And he has lost more than once.
This time, he won. Although he admitted to scanning part of a photograph that appeared in Allure magazine and using it in his collage, Niagara, he did so precisely because it was a fashion magazine photograph -- and thus the subject and target of his commentary. The Court held that this was fair use largely because of the transformative nature of the work.
This case vindicates our right to borrow, use and transform the culture that surrounds us as an element of our own expression. This example happens to concern borrowing from visual art. But ask yourself this: if we can "sample" a fashion photograph in order to create something new and transformative, shouldn't we able to do likewise in other mediums? Music, for instance?
To view Niagara and the photograph used in it, click here. Read more » about An Encouraging Fair Use Decision From The Second Circuit
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Golan v. Holder - Google, Inc. Supreme Court Amicus Brief in support of Golan
Publication Date:June 21, 2011Publication Type:Litigation Brief -
Golan v. Holder - ACLU Supreme Court Amicus Brief in support of Golan
Publication Date:June 21, 2011Publication Type:Litigation BriefAmerican Civil Liberties Union Supreme Court amicus brief in support of Petitioners. Read more » about Golan v. Holder - ACLU Supreme Court Amicus Brief in support of Golan
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Golan v. Holder - Public Domain Interests' Supreme Court Amicus Brief in support of Golan
Author(s):Jennifer UrbanPublication Date:June 21, 2011Publication Type:Litigation Brief -
Golan v. Holder - Information Society Project Supreme Court Amicus Brief in support of Golan
Publication Date:June 21, 2011Publication Type:Litigation BriefBRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE, INFORMATION SOCIETY PROJECT AT YALE LAW SCHOOL PROFESSORS AND FELLOWS, IN SUPPORT OF THE PETITIONERS Read more » about Golan v. Holder - Information Society Project Supreme Court Amicus Brief in support of Golan
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Associated Press v. Meltwater
Meltwater News ("Meltwater") is a search engine and research tool that allows users to search for and obtain information about news items that have been made publicly available on the Internet. Read more » about Associated Press v. Meltwater
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Cariou v. Prince
We filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit on behalf of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts urging the appeals court to reverse a district court decision that ignored established fair use principles that many artists rely upon in creating their work. Read more » about Cariou v. Prince
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Golan v. Holder
The FUP filed this suit on behalf of a University of Denver conductor and others, challenging Congress’s restoration of copyright to works that had entered the public domain. Read more » about Golan v. Holder
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Sony v. Tenenbaum
We filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation asking the First Circuit to affirm the district court’s reduced damages award in Sony v. Tenenbaum, a file-sharing case in which a jury originally ordered a college student to pay $675,000 for infringing copyright in 30 songs. Read more » about Sony v. Tenenbaum
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Jennifer Granick to Direct New Civil Liberties Initiative at Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
Date published:May 30, 2012Stanford Law School today announced the appointment of Jennifer Stisa Granick as Director of Civil Liberties at the Center for Internet and Society (CIS). Granick will lead the Center’s work at the intersection of online technologies and civil liberties, with a particular focus on cybersecurity, national security, government surveillance and free speech.
Read full story at the original publication link below. Read more » about Jennifer Granick to Direct New Civil Liberties Initiative at Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
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Postal Disservice: Could a Sculptor's Fight for Royalties From a Postage Stamp Change Copyright Law?
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It’s Tinkerers v. Hollywood as Copyright Office Mulls New Jailbreaking Rules
Date published:May 17, 2012“This is essentially like letting consumers open the hoods of their own cars,” said Marcia Hofmann, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is asking for the hardware exemptions.
To read the full story read the original publication link below. Read more » about It’s Tinkerers v. Hollywood as Copyright Office Mulls New Jailbreaking Rules
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Is Trademarking a Baby Name Going too Far?
Date published:May 17, 2012
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Copyright in the Digital Age - 16th Annual Stanford Technology Law Review Symposium (Past Event)
February 22, 2013Stanford Law SchoolFor more information please visit STLR's website. Read more » about Copyright in the Digital Age - 16th Annual Stanford Technology Law Review Symposium
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Memorial for Aaron Swartz in SF (Past Event)
January 24, 2013Internet Archive
Please join us as we gather to remember Aaron Swartz on the evening of Thursday, January 24th.Reception at 7:00pm - Memorial at 8:00pmat the Internet Archive300 Funston Avenue, San Francisco 94118 -
Four Factors In Search Of a Question: Anchoring Fair Use to Free Expression and Social Value (Past Event)
January 16, 2013Covington & Burling LLPFour Factors In Search Of a Question: Anchoring Fair Use to Free Expression and Social Value Read more » about Four Factors In Search Of a Question: Anchoring Fair Use to Free Expression and Social Value
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CIS Speaker Series - Stopping SOPA: Copyright, Free Speech, and Popular Constitutionalism (Past Event)
November 15, 2012Stanford Law SchoolDuring late 2011 and January 2012, millions of people protested the passage of the controversial copyright bill the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in Congress. The protests culminated in the largest online protest in the history of the Internet, with web giant Wikipedia and thousands of other websites going black in a day of self-censorship. In a few short months, the protesters achieved something remarkable: they defeated money, politicians, Hollywood, and the copyright lobby, all in the name of a “free and open Internet.” This talk with Professor Edward Lee, explains these grassroots movements as a form of popular constitutionalism. Courts didn't define speech rights. People did. And, in the end, it was the people's view of free speech that carried the day. Read more » about CIS Speaker Series - Stopping SOPA: Copyright, Free Speech, and Popular Constitutionalism
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First Amendment Architecture - STLR Symposium 2012 - First Amendment Challenges in the Digital Age (Video)
February 29, 2012
STLR Symposium 2012 - Co-Hosted by the Center for Internet and Society
February 10, 2012 -
Taking Forgetting Seriously - 2012 STLR Symposium - First Amendment Challenges in the Digital (Video)
February 28, 2012
STLR Symposium 2012 - Co-Hosted by the Center for Internet and Society Read more » about Taking Forgetting Seriously - 2012 STLR Symposium - First Amendment Challenges in the Digital (Video)
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First Amendment Architecture - STLR Symposium 2012 - First Amendment Challenges in the Digital Age (Audio)
February 28, 2012
STLR Symposium 2012 - Co-Hosted by the Center for Internet and Society
February 10, 2012 -
Taking Forgetting Seriously - 2012 STLR Symposium - First Amendment Challenges in the Digital Age (Audio)
February 28, 2012
STLR Symposium 2012 - Co-Hosted by the Center for Internet and Society Read more » about Taking Forgetting Seriously - 2012 STLR Symposium - First Amendment Challenges in the Digital Age (Audio)