LAW 5328: Copyright Law - 2234

Copyright law deals with legal protection for certain kinds of expressive work -- literature, music, film, photography, and computer software, among other things -- which is an essential element of modern culture, knowledge, and communication. The Copyright Law course will teach you about the many roles that copyright law plays in constructing businesses, markets and other institutions for creating, distributing, and consuming that work. For authors and publishers, how does copyright law help them make money based on their creative works, or based on others’ creative works? For readers and consumers and society as a whole, how does copyright law preserve the power to access and use knowledge? The course will teach those things in the context of teaching the skills of copyright lawyering. How do practicing lawyers work with clients? How do practicing lawyers develop and exercise professional judgment? How do practicing lawyers solve copyright problems? The course will put students in the role of practicing lawyers and teach them to think, write, and act as lawyers generally and especially as copyright lawyers.