Fixing Ram Copies

Scholars, litigants, and courts have debated the status of so-called “RAM copies” - instantiations of copyrighted works in the random access memory of computing devices - for decades. The Second Circuit’s decision in Cartoon Network v. CSC Holdings has recently reignited the controversy over these putative copies. There the court held that CSC did not create copies within the meaning of the Copyright Act when it buffered fleeting segments of television programs. In many respects, the Second Circuit’s holding is a straightforward application of the Act’s nested definitions of “copies” and “fixed.” But because the court declined to apply the bright line rule that emerged from MAI v. Peak and its progeny - that all temporary instantiations incidental to the use of digital technologies qualify as copies - Cartoon Network has met with vigorous disapproval from copyright industry representatives. But Peak has faced sustained scholarly criticism for both expanding the scope of the copyright grant and misreading statutory language, legislative history, and precedent. By backing away from the categorical holding in Peak, the Second Circuit sidestepped many of its faults. But Cartoon Network gives rise to another set of concerns, chief among them the absence of a clear standard for distinguishing transitory instantiations from those sufficiently permanent to qualify as copies. While Peak offers a uniform, predictable, but overly inclusive rule for RAM copies, Cartoon Network provides an outcome more consistent with sound statutory interpretation and copyright policy, but lacking in predictive power. The difficulties inherent in both Peak and Cartoon Network flow in part from their treatment of the statutory requirement that fixed copies persist for longer than a “transitory duration.” Peak ignored this requirement altogether, while Cartoon Network treated it as determinative without articulating its contours. Without a clearer conception of the outer bounds of transitory duration, courts are ill equipped to undertake the more nuanced analysis of RAM instantiations Cartoon Network suggests. This paper attempts to bring the contours of “transitory duration” into sharper focus. It draws on three sets of considerations: the application of the transitory duration requirement in the context of copyrightability; qualitative considerations related to the function of RAM instantiations; and a comparison of the work RAM copies do in the copyright system and the traditional role of the reproduction right. On the basis of these considerations, this paper offers a set of concrete factors courts should take into account when classifying RAM instantiations. These factors will lend greater predictability to the RAM instantiation analysis without sacrificing consistency with the text of the Copyright Act and the policies that underlie it

Tattoos & IP Norms

The U.S. tattoo industry generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. Like the music, film, and publishing industries, it derives value from the creation of new, original works of authorship. But unlike rights holders in those more traditional creative industries, tattoo artists rarely assert formal legal rights in disputes over copying or ownership of the works they create. Instead, tattooing is governed by a set of nuanced, overlapping, and occasionally contradictory social norms enforced through informal sanctions. And in contrast to other creative communities that rely on social norms because of the unavailability of formal intellectual property protection, the tattoo industry opts for self-governance despite the comfortable fit of its creative output within the protections of the Copyright Act. This Article relies on qualitative interview data drawn from more than a dozen face-to-face conversations with professionals in the tattoo industry. Based on those interviews, it offers a descriptive account of the social norms that have effectively displaced formal law within the tattoo community, provides a set of complementary cultural and economic explanations for the development of those norms, and outlines the broader implications of this research for intellectual property law and policy

How the Blockchain Undermined Digital Ownership

The shift from a market built around the sale of tangible goods to one premised on the licensing of digital content and services has done significant and lasting damage to the notion of individual ownership. The emergence of blockchain technology, while certainly not necessary to reverse these trends, promised an opportunity to attract investment and demonstrate consumer demand for marketplaces that recognize meaningful digital ownership. Simultaneously, it offered an avenue for alleviating worries about hypothetical widespread reproduction and unchecked distribution of copyrighted works. Instead, many of the most visible blockchain projects in recent years—the proliferation of new cryptocurrencies and the NFT craze, chief among them—have ranged from frivolous opportunities for speculation to outright fraud. Rather than sowing technological seeds that might have yielded a workable proof-of-concept for digital property interests in consumer goods, exploitative blockchain schemes have salted the earth, threatening to discredit the broader, and fundamentally more important, project of constructing a legal framework for digital ownership

Relative Access to Corrective Speech: A New Test for Requiring Actual Malice

This Article reexamines the First Amendment protections provided by the public figure doctrine. It suggests that the doctrine is rooted in a set of out-dated assumptions regarding the media landscape and, as a result, has failed to adapt in a manner that accounts for our changing communications environment. The public figure doctrine, which imposes the more rigorous actual malice standard of fault on defamation plaintiffs who enjoy greater access to mass media, was constructed in an era defined by one-to-many communications media. Newspapers, broadcasters, and traditional publishers exhausted the Court\u27s understanding of the means of communicating with mass audiences. As a result, the public figure doctrine looks only to the status of the plaintiff in determining the appropriate degree of fault. But the development of many-to-many media, like the internet, challenges the assumptions that underlie the public figure doctrine. Many-to-many media increase access to the means of mass communication, creating variety among speakers that Court neither considered nor predicted in constructing the public figure doctrine. In such a heterogeneous and dynamic communications environment, the uniform treatment of defamation defendants should be questioned. This Article suggests that in determining whether the actual malice standard should apply, courts should consider not only variations among plaintiffs, but they should also demonstrate sensitivity to the increased diversity among defamation defendants. By considering a plaintiff\u27s ability to avail herself of corrective counter speech not in isolation, but in light of the reach of the defendant\u27s publication, courts can more usefully apply the actual malice standard in the contemporary communications environment

Consumer Perceptions of the Right to Repair

Part I of this Article details the strategies upon which device makers rely to frustrate repair. Part II considers legislative interventions intended to push back on existing barriers to repair, with a particular focus on the set of bills introduced in state legislatures across the United States. Part III describes the results of a survey of more than 800 U.S. consumers, focusing on their expectations of and experiences with the repair of electronic devices. The legal and policy implications of those results are discussed in Part IV

How the Blockchain Undermined Digital Ownership

The shift from a market built around the sale of tangible goods to one premised on the licensing of digital content and services has done significant and lasting damage to the notion of individual ownership. The emergence of blockchain technology, while certainly not necessary to reverse these trends, promised an opportunity to attract investment and demonstrate consumer demand for marketplaces that recognize meaningful digital ownership. Simultaneously, it offered an avenue for alleviating worries about hypothetical widespread reproduction and unchecked distribution of copyrighted works. Instead, many of the most visible blockchain projects in recent years—the proliferation of new cryptocurrencies and the NFT craze, chief among them—have ranged from frivolous opportunities for speculation to outright fraud. Rather than sewing technological seeds that might have yielded a workable proof-of-concept for digital property interests in consumer goods, exploitative blockchain schemes have salted the earth, threatening to discredit the broader, and fundamentally more important, project of constructing a legal framework for digital ownership

Prometheus Radio Project V. FCC: The Persistence of Scarcity

Part I traces the history of broadcast regulation, emphasizing the development of the scarcity doctrine and the subsequent deregulatory trend. Part II examines the FCC\u27s 2003 rule changes and the Third Circuit\u27s analysis of those modifications in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC. Part III analyzes the assumptions underlying the FCC\u27s proffered explanation for its rule changes, ultimately concluding that they lack justification, and offers suggestions for responsible ownership deregulation. Part IV calls on Congress to reassert itself as the final arbiter of media policy

Mandating Repair Scores

Restrictions on the repair of consumer goods have generated no shortage of policy proposals. This Article considers the empirical and legal case for one particular intervention—requiring firms to calculate and disclose their products’ scores on a uniform reparability index. These repair scores would provide consumers with salient information at or before the point of sale, enabling them to compare products on the basis of the ease and cost of repair. There is considerable empirical research, including assessments of France’s implementation of a similar requirement in recent years, suggesting that repair scores would both inform and empower consumers. Despite likely First Amendment challenges in the United States, such a regime is likely to survive constitutional scrutiny