This semester, I'll be teaching a class called "Copyright, Culture & Commerce" at Rutgers SC&I. I used to teach a very similar course at NYU (which I inherited from Siva Vaidhyanathan), but this is basically a complete reboot. I've built the syllabus from scratch, and made a real effort to balance some of my own opinions with conflicting ones, and to integrate debate into the classroom experience.
One of the biggest problems I've faced is that I know so much more about the subject than I did 5 years ago when I first taught the class, and have read so many more texts, that it's much harder to squeeze it all into one coherent undergraduate experience.
I welcome your feedback -- especially over the next few days, before I have to finalize the syllabus and hand it out to my students.
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Why Do We Have Copyright?
- Readings:
- Debate: Madison vs. Jefferson, U.S. Constitution
- EXTRA CREDIT: Attend Amy Goodman talk, 7pm at
RSC Multipurpose Room
Week 3: Commons & Anticommons
Week 4: The Growth of Copyright
Week 5 : Fair Use and the Public Domain
Week 6: IP & Corporate Power
Week 7: Copyright & Globalization
Week 8: Piracy & Punishment
- Readings:
- Sinnreich, The
Piracy Crusade, Ch. 4-5
- Johns, Piracy:
The Intellectual Property Wars, Ch. 15
- Drahos & Braithwaite, Information Feudalism, Ch. 2: http://j.mp/UpnJqa
- Debate: MGM
v. Grokster: http://j.mp/VKL1ZK
- Guest Lecture: Ray Beckerman, Recording Industry vs. The People
- Midterm Assigned
Week 9: DRM & DMCA
- Readings:
- Debate: Felten
v. RIAA
Week 10: Copyright, Convergence &
Configurability
Week 11: Open Source, Free Software &
Copyfight
Week 12: In Defense of Copyright
- Readings:
- Debate: tk
- Guest lecture (via Skype): Robert Levine
Week 13: Can Copyright be Fixed?
- Readings:
- Final project assigned
Week 14: Is Democracy Piracy?
- Readings:
- Sinnreich, The
Piracy Crusade, Ch. 8-9
- Hyde, Common
As Air, Ch. 9
- Ray Kurzweil interview: http://j.mp/X8zaAD
- Debate: Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad
Genetics: http://j.mp/VKHVoM
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