Information Society Project

The Information Society Project at Yale Law School is an intellectual center addressing the implications of the Internet and new information technologies for law and society, guided by the values of democracy, human development, and social justice.

Governmental Deliberations on Exemptions to the DMCA’s Ban on Circumvention
Today, following a rulemaking proceeding required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and administered by the U.S. Copyright Office, the Librarian of Congress announced six classes of works that would be exempt from the DMCA’s general ban on circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. Related to this [...]

MFIA Wins Appeal Seeking Access to Sealed Records
Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access (MFIA) Practicum scored another victory when a New York state appellate court ruled unanimously that documents in a civil lawsuit alleging corporate corruption were improperly sealed, and clarified the scope of the constitutional access right in the New York courts. Congratulations to Patrick Kabat and the MFIA [...]

Innovate/Activate Unconference on September 24-25
Save the date for Innovate/Activate: An Unconference on Intellectual Property and Activism, scheduled for September 24-25, 2010 at New York Law School. Special thanks to Chris Wong for his efforts organizing this interesting event, presented by the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School and co-organized by the Information Society Project [...]

Bilski & the Definition of Things That “Are Free for All to Use”
The Supreme Court today issued its long-anticipated opinion in the Bilski patent case, regarding a rejected application for patent protection over a method for hedging against the risk of price changes in the energy market. Hot off the presses: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-964.pdf. And at first glance, this complex mix of opinions seems rather inconclusive. Basically, [...]

Illuminating the impact of intellectual property law on innovation
Christina’s terrific piece on Copyright and Glee looks at IP law’s impact on cultural participation. But what about the impact of IP on access to new technologies? I’d like to take that up as the topic of my post, through a look at the little-known legal life of the light bulb. More than a century after its [...]

“Will the RIAA Sue Me?”: Resources for Glee Fans
As they say in the Starship Troopers movie, “Would you like to know more?” Glee highlights important issues in copyright law. So, if you’re interested in making mash-ups or posting videos on youtube and similar sites, what should you know? What resources are available to help you figure out what to do? The Electronic Frontier Foundation [...]

bringing fair use back into the copyright circus
Just as a quick follow-up to Christina’s excellent (and now widely linked!) post examining how the characters of Glee might fare in the real world of copyright law, I wanted to stake out another set of reasons as to why one might find the situation she describes so troubling. It has to do with the [...]