Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
I would like to focus my remarks on the question of user privacy. In her fascinating paper for this Symposium, Professor Litman expresses a guarded optimism that in its forthcoming decision in MGM v. Grokster, I the Court will retain the staple article of commerce doctrine that it first articulated in Sony. She opines, however, that the user privacy strand of the Sony decision is a lost cause. I don't believe that it's possible to retain the staple article of commerce doctrine while abandoning user privacy. At least in the realm of networked digital technologies, the two concepts are inextricably linked. To explain why, I would like to begin by examining a concept that I'll call copyright's public-private distinction. This distinction does not concern the presence or absence of state action, but rather the presence or absence of conduct triggering legal accountability.
Publication Citation
55 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 963-970 (2005)
Scholarly Commons Citation
Cohen, Julie E., "Comment: Copyright's Public-Private Distinction" (2005). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 56.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/56