Infringement Nation Copyright 2.0 and You

Written on the occasion of copyright's 300th anniversary, John Tehranian's Infringement Nation presents an engaging and accessible analysis of the history and evolution of copyright law and its profound impact on the lives of ordinary individuals in the twenty-first century. Organized around the trope of the individual in five different copyright-related contexts - as an infringer, transformer, pure user, creator and reformer - the book charts the changing contours of our copyright regime and assesses its vitality in the digital age. In the process, Tehranian questions some of our most basic assumptions about copyright law by highlighting the unseemly amount of infringement liability an average person rings up in a single day, the counterintuitive role of the fair use doctrine in radically expanding the copyright monopoly, the important expressive interests at play in even the unauthorized use of copyright works, the surprisingly low level of protection that American copyright law grants many creators, and the broader political import of copyright law on the exertion of social regulation and control. Drawing upon both theory and the author's own experiences representing clients in various high-profile copyright infringement suits, Tehranian supports his arguments with a rich array of diverse examples crossing various subject matters - from the unusual origins of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the question of numeracy among Amazonian hunter-gatherers, the history of stand-offs at papal nunciatures, and the tradition of judicial plagiarism to contemplations on Slash's criminal record, Barbie's retroussé nose, the poisonous tomato, flag burning, music as a form of torture, the smell of rotting film, William Shakespeare as a man of the people, Charles Dickens as a lobbyist, Ashley Wilkes's sexual orientation, Captain Kirk's reincarnation, and Holden Caulfield's maturation. In the end, Infringement Nation makes a sophisticated yet lucid case for reform of existing doctrine and the development of a copyright 2.0.

John Tehranian is the Irwin R. Buchalter Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School and the Bierderman Entertainment and Media Law Institute in Los Angeles, California. He is also a founding partner of One LLP, an entertainment and intellectual property firm in Southern California known for handling high-profile copyright infringement litigation. In the course of his legal practice, Tehranian has represented clients in a wide range of cases, from the alleged infringement of Winston Churchill's speeches, an ownership dispute over the recording of Jimi Hendrix's last major concert, and publicity rights over the images of Bette Davis and Bettie Page to fair use rights to Britney Spears photographs, remake rights to a Jules Verne novel and political parody rights to a Don Henley classic. Tehranian has previously served as Professor of Law at the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, and as Visiting Professor of Law at Loyola Law School. A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, he is the author of numerous articles on the interface between law and culture, with a particular focus on issues of intellectual property, entertainment, and civil rights. He is also the author of the book Whitewashed (2009).