Fordham 27 (Report 2): IP – Past, Present & Future

The second session to take the stage was a huge panel on "IP – Past Present & Future" chaired by Hugh Hansen, but the AmeriKat focuses on the presentations given by the main speakers below.Ralph Oman (The George Washington University Law School) trotted through the history of copyright from the US Constitution (where the Framers wanted to emphasize the public good being the objective of copyright, not the welfare of authors; James Madison said those two concepts were not at war with each other) to today.  He noted that copyright protection was initially limited, but then the protected works expanded to align more with the works protected in European countries. He set out the legislative measures which Congress adopted to provide benefits for business, i.e. safe harbors, compulsory licences (albeit the companies that initially benefited, are now mature so its harder to justify the licences) and term extensions. He said that Google really has a chance to shape…

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