fandomhigh | Lawyering Up: Week 2, Wed, Period 2 (1/16)

Nathan was there, dressed in a suit and tie as usual. He passed out a packet of handouts. "Today we're going to be discussing Copyright Law. At its core, Copyright Law makes sure people get credit and/or payment for their own work. Sounds good so far, right?

"However," Nathan continued, "changing technology means that law as we knew it doesn't necessarily apply to law as we need it. A novelist who rips entire passages from previously written books and poems - as silly as that idea may seem - has plenty of established law to try to navigate.

"But these days there are all new kinds of problems." Nathan looked around the room. "For example, file sharing. Which I'm sure everyone here has only ever done in a perfectly legal fashion. In your handouts you'll see a summary of MGM vs Grokster. This case provides an example of the can of worms that's been opened on copyrights. How do we protect people's right to be credited and paid while at the same time responding to the consumer's demand to use new technology? Is it possible to prevent theft without preventing legal innovations? What constitutes theft in the first place?

"I don't expect you to answer all of these questions today," Nathan said. "But I want you to gain an appreciation of the issues. Last week we discussed the use of precedent. This week I want you to see what happens when society takes a huge leap and precedent has yet to catch up.

"So what I want you to do is take a look at the handouts, including the last one if you're really into the reading. Then come up with your own ideas of how file sharing should be handled. Any aspect of it. Should we continue to try to adapt precedent? Should we give up on that for a new system? How could file sharing be set up to honor copyright as we know it without allowing illegal activities? Assume anything is possible, for the purpose of the exercise.

"Be prepared to defend your position though," Nathan said. "Because once you tell us what you think your classmates get to question you. Don't worry, you'll get to question them in turn. I might join in myself from time to time. I want to see you using what we've done so far, and getting practice at arguing your case.

"Oh, and - " Nathan checked his paperwork. "Some administrative notes. Sam Winchester is the class TA. My office hours are Thursday mornings. So far Annette is the only one to have provided me with a lawyer joke so she's currently winning that race. And if Ms. Wexler is here, I'd like to chat with you after class." Nathan smiled. "Don't worry. You're not in trouble. We can schedule for another day if today's not good for you.

"That's it. Get started on trying to find solutions to the copyright problem, and feel free to ask questions if you need to."

[ooc: OCD ~~coming~~ up! Going to bed, will pick up pings tomorrow.]

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Listen, talk amongst yourselves, the usual.

Turtle's eyes practically bulged out of her head near the end of lecture when her name was mentioned, but, up until that point, she was taking very detailed and very attentative notes. The reassurance that it wasn't anything bad had her relaxing instantly, though, and realizing that, clearly, it was just something to do with how awesome she was. Or perhaps a special order for the store or something. Which would be even better.

Chris, of course, was taking very good notes.

Lana sat down next to Chris and busied herself with notetaking. Especially since she wasn't sure she had anything much to say on the subject of file-sharing.

Lucas had a notebook and a mechanical pencil that he was clicking to raise the lead and then clicking and pushing the lead back down to nothing. And then he'd repeat the process.

Andros took notes.

Isabel was paying careful attention and taking lots of notes. For no reason whatsoever. She'd never download Mr. What episodes. That'd be just wrong.

While this didn't seem much in the way of helping people, per se, which was the reason Hermione'd taken this class, it was turning out that she was really sort of fascinated by this sort of thing. Plus there were handouts and reading, and she had her priorities.

Summer was actually paying attention and taking notes.

Lee didn't much find this aspect of law interesting so his notes were minimal.

Dean may have looked like he was taking lots of notes, but in reality he was doodling and idly writing out Led Zepplin lyrics. It was better than sitting there and letting his eyes glaze over, he figured.

Of all the things he could see himself possibly having to deal with the law over, making mix tapes didn't even make the list.

Lawyering Up: Week 2, Wed, Period 2 (1/16)

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