"COPYRIGHT & PERSONAL COPYING: SONY v. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS TWENTY-ONE YEARS LATER"
In Sony v. Universal City Studios, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the VCR, once described as the equivalent of the “Boston Strangler” for copyrighted works, did not violate copyright law. With the emergence of the Internet and other new technologies, artists, entrepreneurs, and lawmakers continue to grapple with the decision and its implications for copyright and new technologies. At this symposium, which marks the 21st anniversary of the decision, media experts, law scholars and practitioners will discuss what the decision has meant for innovators and secondary liability, its impact on the fair use doctrine and private copying, and how the decision is playing out from a variety of perspectives. These discussions will be particularly timely in light of the forthcoming appeal to the Supreme Court in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster.
9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Welcome & Introduction
9:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Panel One: Information Markets and Innovation after Sony
“Rewinding Sony”
Randal Picker, Professor, University of Chicago Law School
“Sony’s Effect on the Market Analysis”
Frank Pasquale, Associate Professor, Seton Hall Law School
Commentator: Dan Hunter, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, Wharton
Business School, University of Pennsylvania
10:45 a.m. - Noon
Panel Two: Public Copying Beyond Time-Shifting
“Sony, Tort Doctrines, and the Puzzle of Peer-to-Peer”
Alfred C. Yen, Professor of Law, Boston College Law School
Commentators:
David W. Barnes, Distinguished Research Professor of Law, Seton Hall
R. Anthony Reese, Professor, University of Texas School of Law
1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
“The Warring Frameworks of Fair Use”
Wendy J. Gordon, Professor & Paul J. Liacos Scholar-in-Law, Boston
University School of Law
2:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Panel Three: Judicial Intent in Sony and Implications for Innovation
“The Sony Paradox”
Jessica Litman, Professor, Wayne State University
Commentators:
Julie E. Cohen, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Stacey L. Dogan, Associate Professor, Northeastern University School of Law
3:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Panel Four: Sony in the Trenches
Panelists:
James Burger, Esq., Dow,
Matthew J. Oppenheim, Partner, Jenner & Block
Michael Petricone, Consumer Electronics Association