Home / Advanced Copyright: Garcia v. Google
This mini-course will focus on a recent copyright case of tremendous import, namely Garcia v. Google. It is designed for students who already have a basic understanding of the law of copyright. The rhythms of the class itself will govern, which undoubtedly will differ from what we can currently envision. That being said, the following list of issues lays out a rough order for how things will unfold: the effect of work for hire doctrine on motion picture exploitation; the status of a performance as a copyrightable work of authorship or component of a greater work; whether the contribution here was made as part of a joint work; the effect of fraud in the inducement when hiring a contributor to a copyrightable work; the construction of implied licenses and their effect on this case; the proper role of takedown notices and their impact on an infringement suit; the distinction between mandatory and prohibitive relief; whether death threats amount to “irreparable injury” from infringement; the power of the judiciary to enter into the political fray of world events; and the cross-over between copyright and the First Amendment. The final grade will be based on (a) a 15-page paper, (b) participation in class discussions, and (c) a presentation to the class in the modules set forth above. This course is taught by David Nimmer, of counsel to Irell & Manella LLP in Los Angeles, California and Professor from Practice at UCLA School of Law and Distinguished Scholar at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Students who previously completed Professor Nimmer’s Advanced Copyright mini-course are permitted to enroll in this course as well. (1 Credit)
Spring 2017
David Nimmer
Intellectual Property & Technology