Critical Copyright, and more:
my essays, linked and glossed
You may redisseminate any of the following texts only in
its entirety and without change and only if, in doing so, you name me as its
author, you specify its title and publication information indicated below, and you give
the address of this web page or link to it. For consent to disseminate any modified version,
please contact me at the email address indicated on my résumé.
Thank you! Paul Edward Geller
Intellectual
Property generally
· Paul Edward Geller, Dissolving
Intellectual Property, European Intellectual Property Review,
vol. 28 (2006), p. 139
Why can’t we apply the law of intellectual property simply
and coherently? This law seems to keep falling apart, while falling behind the
information explosion that has kept accelerating over time. In the essay linked
above, I trace this dynamic historically and outline new lines of research.
Copyright
and other rights in media productions
· Paul Edward Geller, Copyright History and the Future: What's Culture Got to Do With
It?, Journal of the
Copyright Society of the USA, vol. 47 (2000), p. 209
With the advent of print in Europe, rising nation-states
policed the book trade. Centuries later, authors began to be granted copyrights
to control the publication and public performance of their works. Now, digital
technologies are enabling end-users to rework and redisseminate works. In the
essay linked above, I examine these trends and explore options for the future.
· Paul Edward Geller, Toward an
Overriding Norm in Copyright: Sign Wealth, Revue Internationale du Droit d'Auteur, no. 159 (1994),
p. 3
· Paul
Edward Geller, Beyond
the Copyright Crisis: Principles for Change, Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., vol. 55 (2008), p. 165
What principles should guide copyright law? Check out the principles proposed
elsewhere on this site. Distinct philosophical approaches have influenced these
principles. In the first essay linked above, I critique how these approaches
have been elaborated in the divergent regimes of copyright and of authors’
rights. In the second essay linked above, I try to resolve tensions both
between and common to these regimes.
· Paul Edward Geller, Hiroshige vs. Van Gogh: Resolving the Dilemma
of Copyright Scope in Remedying Infringement, Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA,
vol. 46 (1998), p. 39
Take a look at Hiroshige’s
prints and Van Gogh’s studies which reworked these prints. Should copyright
law entitle an earlier creator, like Hiroshige, to stop a later creator, like
Van Gogh, from transforming his work? Our response: No! the law should not
obstruct creation, even that derived from another’s work, nor dissemination of
such a creation. In the essay linked above, I explain legal and cultural
considerations that compel and control this response. On that basis, I lay out
guidelines for fashioning judicial remedies in copyright cases.
· Paul Edward Geller, Legal
Transplants in International Copyright: Some Questions of Method, UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal, vol. 13
(1994), p. 199
· Paul Edward Geller, Rethinking
the Berne-Plus Framework: From Conflicts of Laws to Copyright Reform, European
Intellectual Property Review, vol. 31 (2009), p. 391
Copyright was born in Europe and has spread worldwide. In
the first essay linked above, I analyze the conditions for transplanting laws,
focusing on how treaties have globally harmonized copyright laws. In the second
essay linked above, I explore how to rethink the treaty framework for
coherently reforming diverse copyright laws worldwide.
Patent
and other rights in technologies and designs
· Paul Edward Geller, An
International Patent Utopia?,
European Intellectual Property
Review, vol. 25 (2003), p. 515
Swamped, the patent system is slowing down the feedback of
new technologies into research and development. In the essay linked above, I
propose a pair of new measures that, in tandem, might help to solve resulting problems.
One measure would, via the internet, give global notice of innovative
technologies; another would resolve disputes between claimants.
Cyberlaw: governance within global networks
· Paul Edward Geller, From
Patchwork to Network: Strategies for International Intellectual Property in
Flux, Duke Journal of
International & Comparative Law, vol. 9 (1998), p. 69,
and Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational
Law, vol. 31 (1998), p. 553
In the 1880s, treaties were concluded to assure the
protection of intellectual property in many countries at once. The resulting
system, much expanded but still operative today, governs a patchwork of
territorial laws. In the essay linked above, I contemplate networking global
governance in the field.