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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Opposition To SOPA Continues To Grow
By Anthony Falzone • November 15, 2011 at 11:36 am
Representatives Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren joined eight other members of Congress in urging the House Judiciary Committee to reject SOPA because it would cause "serious and long term damage to the technology industry" -- "one of the few bright spots in our economy."
Nine of the leading internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Zynga also sent a letter to key member of the Committee explaining that SOPA would jeopardize protections that "have been a cornerstone of the U.S. Internet and technology industry’s growth and success."
Both letters are attached below, and you can find lots more information on the Protect Innovation homepage. Read more » about Opposition To SOPA Continues To Grow
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David Post: Occupy Hollywood (and stop SOPA)
By Anthony Falzone • November 4, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Last July, I signed on to a letter from more than 100 law professors urging Congress to reject the PROTECT-IP Act. A new version of that bill -- referred to as both the E-PARASITE Act and SOPA -- was introduced in the House last week, and it is even more dangerous than its predecessors. See David Post's critique at the Volokh Conspiracy. Hear Mark Lemley's discussion on APM's Marketplace. Once you do, you'll probably ask "what can I do to stop this?" You can start by signing this petition at whitehouse.gov, and using this tool from EFF to write your Senator and Congressperson -- wherever you live. Read more » about David Post: Occupy Hollywood (and stop SOPA)
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Fair Use Project Teams Up With Andy Warhol Foundation To Urge Second Circuit To Provide Broader Fair Use Protection For Artists
By Anthony Falzone • November 3, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Last March, a Manhattan district court issued an order declaring thirty paintings by the renowned artist Richard Prince unlawful, and issued an injunction that led to the seizure and potential destruction of his work. It did so because Prince’s paintings used images of Rastafarians that Prince found in Patrick Cariou’s book, Yes, Rasta. Yesterday, we filed an amicus brief on behalf of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts urging the Second Circuit to reverse that decision. (The Warhol Foundation's press release is here.)
Read more » about Fair Use Project Teams Up With Andy Warhol Foundation To Urge Second Circuit To Provide Broader Fair Use Protection For Artists -
New York Times on Golan v. Holder: "free speech rights should prevail"
By Anthony Falzone • October 12, 2011 at 8:28 am
This New York Times editorial hits the nail on the head: active participation in the global economy does not justify the sacrifice of important First Amendment rights. Read more » about New York Times on Golan v. Holder: "free speech rights should prevail"
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PROTECT IP Act (S.968) and Stop Online Privacy Act (H.R.3261)
Author(s):Marvin AmmoriPublication Date:December 8, 2011Publication Type:Regulatory FilingLetter to Congress explaining that proposed copyright legislation would violate the First Amendment and be struck down in court. Read more » about PROTECT IP Act (S.968) and Stop Online Privacy Act (H.R.3261)
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Cariou v. Prince - Amicus Brief
Author(s):Anthony FalzoneDaniel NazerJulie AhrensPublication Date:November 2, 2011Publication Type:Litigation BriefAmicus brief filed 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 - Amicus Brief
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A Legitimate Interest in Promoting the Progress of Science: Constitutional Constraints on Copyright Laws
Author(s):David OlsonPublication Date:October 13, 2011Publication Type:Academic WritingThe Supreme Court certified two questions in Golan v. Holder: (1) Does section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (“URAA”) violate the Progress Clause of the Constitution? (2) Does the URAA violate the First Amendment? This Essay argues that section 514 violates the Progress Clause’s requirement that copyright laws “promote the Progress of Science.” This is because the statute bequeaths copyright status without in return achieving any net increase in the creation or dissemination of creative works. Read more » about A Legitimate Interest in Promoting the Progress of Science: Constitutional Constraints on Copyright Laws
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Golan v. Holder - Petitioners' Reply Brief
Author(s):Anthony FalzoneDaniel NazerJulie AhrensPublication Date:August 31, 2011Publication Type:Litigation BriefSupreme Court Reply Brief filed by Petitioners. Read more » about Golan v. Holder - Petitioners' Reply Brief
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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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Copyright Law and Fair Use To Be Addressed by Daniel Nazer in Free Lecture @ Cogswell College in Sunnyvale on Weds (April 11th)
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Dotcom's bailhouse rock
Date published:April 1, 2012 -
How Important Is Attribution In Copyright Issues?
Date published:March 28, 2012Many, many people think that attribution is a key part of copyright law, but in the US it's really not a part of the law at all (with a few tiny, nearly meaningless exceptions). Attribution issues may come up in situations of plagiarism, but they have little do with copyright infringement, which is infringement with or without attribution. Elsewhere, there are issues of moral rights, but for the most part, the US does not recognize moral rights in copyright. Of course, many have argued that perhaps attribution is more important than much of what is in copyright law, and at times there have been efforts to focus more on the question of attribution over infringement. A recent study has tried to quantify some issues around this idea and put questions about the value of attribution into context. Eric Goldman points our attention to this recent paper by Christopher Sprigman, Christopher Buccafusco and Zachary Burns which is entitled Valuing Attribution and Publication in Intellectual Property. Read more » about How Important Is Attribution In Copyright Issues?
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Google Steps Into File Sharing Scrap
Date published:March 21, 2012Marketplace Tech interviews CIS Executive Director of the Fair Use Project Anthony Falzone about Google file sharing. Read more » about Google Steps Into File Sharing Scrap
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2/2: Jonathan Band - The Path to Settlement in the Google Books Case (Past Event)
February 2, 2010Stanford Law SchoolJonathan Band graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School. He was a partner at Morrison and Foerster in Washington DC for 13 years before starting his own legislative and appellate advocacy firm.Please join CIS and SLATA for a discussion of the terms in the amended settlement agreement in the Google Books case. Mr. Read more » about 2/2: Jonathan Band - The Path to Settlement in the Google Books Case
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1/11: RECAP the Law and the Movement to Free Government Records with Stephen Schultze (Past Event)
January 11, 2010Stanford Law SchoolStephen Schultze is Associate Director at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. He comes most recently from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. His research focuses on government transparency, telecoms policy, and open source. He holds an M.S. from MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program and a B.A. in Computer Science.Join us for a talk on “RECAP the Law and the Movement to Free Government Records” given by Stephen Schultze, Associate Director at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. Read more » about 1/11: RECAP the Law and the Movement to Free Government Records with Stephen Schultze
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10/28: Jonathan Zittrain - Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet (Past Event)
October 28, 2009Stanford Law SchoolJoin us for a talk on Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet by Jonathan Zittrain, Visiting Professor.
Co-hosted by the Robert Crown Law Library and the Center for Internet & Society.
Snacks & Home-baked sweets served! Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch. Read more » about 10/28: Jonathan Zittrain - Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet
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10/12: Speaker Series - Mark Lemley - The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It (Past Event)
October 12, 2009Stanford Law SchoolWidely recognized as a preeminent scholar of intellectual property law, Mark A. Lemley (BA '88) is an accomplished litigator—having litigated cases before the US Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and federal circuit courts—as well as a prolific writer with more than 100 published articles and six books. He has testified numerous times before Congress, the California legislature, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Antitrust Modernization Commission on patent, trade secret, antitrust, and constitutional law matters. He is also a partner and founder in the firm Durie Tangri LLP. Read more » about 10/12: Speaker Series - Mark Lemley - The Patent Crisis and How the Courts Can Solve It
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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)