Private Law Theory

Cathay YN Smith, ‘Weaponizing Copyright’ (May 2, 2021), 35 Harvard Journal of Law and Technology (forthcoming, 2021), available at SSRN; ‘Copyright Silencing’, Cathay YN Smith, 106 Cornell Law Review Online 71 (2021). In two related pieces, Professor Cathay YN Smith revisits the issue of plaintiffs using the threat value of copyright law to advance claims or interests other than protecting the value of original expression. As she documents, these threats appear to be on the rise in response to the growth of the internet and social media, the lack of coherent privacy law in the United States, and the comparatively powerful array of remedies copyright offers copyright owners. This review focuses on the larger argument in ‘Weaponizing Copyright’, which generalizes from, and incorporates much of the argument from, ‘Copyright Silencing’. In it, Professor Smith has three overarching goals … (more)

[Michael W Carroll, JOTWELL, 12 October]

First posted 2021-10-15 12:00:04