 Hello, I'm Terry Fisher. This is the introduction to a series of 12 lectures on copyright. My hope in these lectures is to provide you the following things. First, an understanding of the basic principles of copyright law. Second, an appreciation of the ways in which that law affects, for better and worse, creativity and innovation in a wide variety of artistic and technical fields. To that end, I'll be providing you along the way illustrations of the ways that copyright works in literature, music, film, photography, graphic art, software, comedy, fashion, architecture, and so forth. Third, I will try to provide you a critical understanding of the main theories of copyright, by which I mean the arguments developed over several centuries by economists, philosophers, and political theorists concerning the purposes or functions of the copyright system. These theories are not mere matters of academic curiosity and dispute. Copyright law is changing very fast, in part, in an attempt to address new technologies. And the lawmakers who are making the changes are influenced by, and in turn, help to shape the competing theories of copyright. So to understand where the law is going, and certainly if you wish to affect its trajectory, you need to know a fair amount about theory. This brings me to the fourth and last of the ambitions. By the end of these lectures, I hope to have increased your ability and confidence to make informed judgments concerning how, if at all, the copyright system should be reformed. So to summarize, copyright law, its impact on creativity, theories of copyright, and ways in which the system could be improved. Those are the general themes I'll be addressing. The themes are intertwined, of course, and I'll try to identify in the lectures the relationships among them. The topics of the 12 lectures, in which I'll be addressing these themes, are set forth on your screen. The first lecture is called The Foundations of Copyright Law. Once I'm finished with this introductory material, I'll discuss three aspects of copyright that can be thought of as fundamental. The concept of originality. The crucial distinctions in copyright law between ideas, facts, and expression. And the system of multilateral treaties that constrain the freedom of almost all countries when shaping and administering their national copyright systems. Along the way, I'll discuss some current controversies that those basic principles affect. The second lecture will examine and contrast two theories of copyright, specifically the fairness theory, which is especially prominent in countries like Great Britain, the United States, and Australia that have been influenced by the common law legal tradition. And the personality or personhood theory, which tends to be somewhat more prominent in countries, including continental Europe and Latin America, that have been influenced by the civil law tradition. In the third lecture, we'll return to legal doctrine. Specifically, I will survey the kinds of original works that are subject to copyright protection. Some of these, such as novels, musical compositions, and films, will be unsurprising. Others, such as software, fictional characters, and three-dimensional useful objects, may be somewhat more eye-opening. The fourth lecture will concentrate on the most complex of the copyright theories, the welfare theory and outgrowth of the philosophic tradition of utilitarianism. As we'll see, this theory has growing influence, certainly among scholars and increasingly among lawmakers, in all jurisdictions in the world. The fifth lecture will consider the complex set of rules that define the term author, and identify the persons and organizations that qualify as authors. The sixth lecture, entitled The Mechanics of Copyright, considers how the copyright system works in practice. I'll discuss, for example, what, if anything, an author must do to secure copyright protection, the preconditions for bringing a copyright inference suit, how long copyrights last, how the rights associated with copyright are transferred from one person to another, and how the copyright system attempts to shield authors or their families against exploitation. The seventh and eighth lectures will examine in some detail the legal rights that a copyright owner enjoys. The primary entitlements, we'll see, are the exclusive rights to reproduce, modify, distribute, or perform their works. We'll examine the scope of each of those rights, and the equally important list of specific exceptions and limitations upon those rights, which are designed to protect the public's interest in enjoying and transforming copyrighted materials. The ninth lecture will examine the general defense of copyright infringement, known variously as fair use and fair dealing. This is among the most controversial and unstable aspects of the copyright system. How this doctrine evolves in the near future will have a big impact on journalism, music, film, graphic art, and so forth. In the tenth lecture, we'll return for the last time to copyright theory, examining an approach that seems to be gradually growing and influence in many countries. It goes by various names, but I will use the term cultural theory. In the eleventh lecture, we'll examine two important supplements to the set of legal rights enjoyed by copyright owners. The first of these is the doctrine of secondary liability, which enables copyright owners sometimes to control the behavior of organizations that do not themselves engage in copyright infringement, but rather facilitate the infringing behavior of others. Included in this group are some quaint organizations, like Flea Markets and some modern ones, like peer-to-peer file sharing systems. The second supplement is the recent addition to the copyright system of prohibitions on the circumvention of technological protection measures. That cumbersome term refers to legal efforts to increase the ability of copyright owners to control uses of their works through encryption. Finally, in the twelfth lecture, I'll survey the legal remedies that are available to a copyright owner whose rights have been abridged. As is probably obvious, there's a color scheme to this list. The lectures describe using a black font focused on copyright law and its applications. The lectures describe using a red font focused on theoretical or policy considerations. When discussing details concerning copyright law, I will most often make reference to the rules currently enforced in the United States. Partly because I know that system best and partly because, for better or worse, US law is influential in many other jurisdictions. But I will also devote significant attention to the differences between US law and the legal systems in other countries. Now, a few words about the logistics of these lectures. Each will last roughly 90 minutes. A fair amount of graphic and audio visual material will accompany the lectures. Consequently, it would be best if you view recordings of the lectures on a computer or on a screen of some sort. You could, of course, just listen to them, but you'd be missing much illustrative material. The most important of the supplementary visual materials will be two maps I've prepared. One covers the main features of copyright law. The other covers the main features of copyright theory. Because the maps themselves and my use of them are unusual, I'll say a few more words about this feature. The heart of the first map looks like this. As you might imagine, the plus signs identify opportunities for expansion. If you click on a plus sign, it will open additional branches of the map like so. These icons identify links. Some of the links will open slide presentations that I prepared. Others lead to copies of statutes or judicial decisions or to supplementary materials prepared by other scholars or lawyers that are accessible through the internet. The second map, which examines intellectual property theory, works the same way. Both of these maps were created using the Mind Manager software program, and I will be displaying the Mind Manager versions on your screens during these lectures. If you want to explore the maps at your leisure, you can gain access to them through the Copyright X website or through my personal homepage, the address of which is tfisher.org. If you want to edit the maps, for example, to add your own notes or to supplement the links, you'll need a software program of some sort. You can, of course, use the Mind Manager, which you can obtain from the website for MindJet, but it's expensive. Other programs that can be used to import and edit the maps include iThoughts, which is available for a modest price, and XMind, an open source program that's available for free. Last but not least, if you want to explore the maps, but not edit them, the easiest way to do so is to use the Flash-based versions, which are available on the Copyright X website. To use those, you don't need any software at all. They will open in most modern browsers. Together, the two maps contain all of my lecture notes for all of the 12 lectures, plus links to a wide variety of additional materials. The result is that they contain, or provide access to, a large amount of information and commentary. However, it's important that you understand their limitations. In particular, should not think of the first map as the equivalent of a treatise on copyright law. It's certainly not a comprehensive survey of the law, and it contains some opinionated material that would be inappropriate in a treatise. Rather, it's a pedagogic aid, a device intended to facilitate your understanding of and your capacity to remember the main features of the copyright system. I modify both of these maps with some frequency. Most often, I do this to take into account changes in copyright statutes or treaties or new judicial decisions. But I also sometimes revise the maps when I change my mind on a particular issue or when another commentator deploys a novel argument. Accordingly, if you find the maps useful in the future, you should probably check the Copyrightx website to make sure that you have the most current versions. I will try to keep the maps reasonably up to date as long as I'm able. Finally, if you have suggestions concerning the content of either map, bearing in mind, of course, their limited purposes, feel free to email me using the address listed on the Copyrightx website. The same principle applies to these lectures. If you have suggestions concerning how they might be improved, please let me know by sending a message to the same email address. This concludes the introduction to lecture number one. In the next segment, I'll take up the first of the substantive topics on the course, the concept of originality.