Monday February 15, 2004
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Room 80 (Moot Courtroom)
Free and Open to all!
Lunch Served
Beverly Hills Yogi Bikram Choudhury has registered copyright on his book "Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class" and on the series of hatha yoga exercises and poses that he teaches in the book and in his yoga classes. His lawyers claim that these copyrights give him the right to enjoin others from practicing or teaching classes in which students do (or attempt) the poses in the same order. Bikram has sent out hundreds of letters threatening suit against his former students and other yoga instructors for teaching "his" yoga. Brave studio owners and teachers banded together to form Open Source Yoga Unity, a group to defend yoga instructors' right to teach any style of yoga they like, including Bikram-style yoga. OSYU has filed a declaratory judgment suit which is progressing in Federal Court in San Francisco. Elizabeth Rader, along with attorney Jim Harrison, is representing OSYU, and will speak about the case. At issue is more than yoga- if Bikram succeeds, he has essentially obtained patent protection for the entire copyright term; with dangerous implications for the freedom to practice other kinds of physical exercise and activities, including those in the public domain.About the speaker