Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2005

Abstract

Copyright doctrine . . . is characterized by the absence of the user. As copyright moves into the digital age, this absence has begun to matter profoundly. As I will show, the absence of the user has consequences that reach far beyond debates about the legality of private copying, or about the proper scope of user-oriented exemptions such as the fair use and first sale doctrines. The user's absence produces a domino effect that ripples through the structure of copyright law, shaping both its unquestioned rules and its thorniest dilemmas. The resulting imbalance - empty space where one cornerstone of a well-balanced copyright edifice should be - makes for bad theory, bad policy, and bad law.

Publication Citation

74 Fordham L. Rev. 347-374 (2005)

Share

COinS