Press Release, The American Law Institute ; Restatement of the Law, Copyright Is Approved
"The American Law Institute’s membership voted today to approve Restatement of the Law, Copyright. This is the first Restatement devoted to copyright law and provides guidance to courts in areas in which the governing statute leaves significant scope for discretion in this complex field. Restatements are primarily addressed to courts. They aim at clear formulations of the law and reflect the law as it presently stands or might appropriately be stated by a court. Launched in 2014, the project has been presented in stages at ALI’s Annual Meetings over the past five years.
The Reporter for the project is Christopher Jon Sprigman of New York University School of Law. Associate Reporters are Daniel J. Gervais of Vanderbilt University Law School; Lydia Pallas Loren of Lewis & Clark Law School; R. Anthony Reese of University of California, Irvine School of Law; and Molly S. Van Houweling of University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
“The Copyright Restatement represents a major milestone in ALI’s ongoing work to clarify areas the law,” said ALI Director Diane P. Wood. “Copyright law is rooted in a detailed federal statute, yet the courts continue to play a critical role in interpreting key concepts and applying them in new technological and creative contexts. This Restatement brings coherence and analytical rigor to these interpretive challenges. It provides courts and practitioners with a principled guide to the areas in which judges have been asked to exercise their discretion. Like ALI’s recent Restatement work on U.S. Foreign Relations Law and The Law of American Indians, the Copyright project reflects our commitment to supporting the sound development of the law.”
“The Copyright Act, while comprehensive in some areas, leaves many important questions to be worked out in the courts,” added Reporter Sprigman. “This Restatement distills and organizes how courts have addressed these open questions and offers clear guidance. Copyright law has never stood still—it evolves with the ways we create, share, and build upon culture, knowledge, and information. The Copyright Act provides the scaffolding, but the courts play a central role on many of the most consequential questions in copyright law. What this Restatement does is gather, organize, and clarify the case law that fills in those statutory gaps. We aimed to reflect how judges have actually decided these issues and to present the guidance in a way that is accessible, coherent, and faithful to doctrine. It has been a privilege to work with such a deeply knowledgeable team of Associate Reporters, Advisers, Liaisons, and ALI members, and I believe the final product will serve as an essential secondary source for years to come.”
This Restatement offers guidance to courts in areas of copyright law including the boundary between copyrightable expression and uncopyrightable ideas and facts; the scope of exclusive rights; ownership and transfer rules; infringement standards; defenses like fair use and first sale; and available remedies.
The publication is organized into eleven chapters:
- Subject Matter and Standards
- Scope of Protection
- Initial Ownership, Transfers, Voluntary Licenses, and Termination of Grants
- Copyright Formalities
- Duration of Copyright
- Copyright Rights and Limitations
- Copyright Infringement
- Secondary Liability
- Remedies for Copyright Infringement
- Copyright-Protection-and-Management Systems
- Procedural Issues and Relationship to Other Bodies of Law
ALI Reporters, under the oversight of the Director, will now prepare the Institute’s official text for publication. At this stage, Reporters may update citations, make editorial revisions, and incorporate any final changes approved during the Annual Meeting. Until the official Volume is published, the approved Tentative Drafts represent the official position of The American Law Institute and may be cited as such.
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About The American Law Institute
The American Law Institute is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. The ALI drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law that are influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education. By participating in the Institute’s work, its distinguished members have the opportunity to influence the development of the law in both existing and emerging areas, to work with other eminent lawyers, judges, and academics, to support the rule of law and the legal system, and to contribute to the public good."
