Re: copyright of briefs

On Tue, 22 Oct 1996, dennisk[_at_]lawserver_nt1.LAW.ASU.EDU (Dennis Karjala) wrote:
>
> I apologize for this rather long posting, but given the
> degree of discussion the copyright protectibility of briefs has
> generated, I thought I would share an exam question I gave a few
> years ago in my copyright class and my "model answer" to the
> question. I should perhaps say that I am sympathetic to the
> policy arguments that John Lederer has been making on this topic,
> even though doctrine gets somewhat greater attention in my model
> answer than it would were I writing a law review article on this
> topic. Students, in my experience, don't do too well with policy
> arguments, and I've come not to expect them to.
>
> Anyway, for what they're worth, the question and answer are
> reproduced below.
>

<SNIP>

Gee, I haven't seen a law exam and answer in a very long time; I'm glad I still don't have to.

Seriously, a good question and a thorough exposition.

     Answer

> The first issue is whether legal briefs, as opposed to
> judicial opinions and statutes, are copyright subject matter at
> all. The can be no serious issue concerning "authorship" in a
> brief of five pages,

I assume you mean there is enough to qualify for authorship.

Interesting.

Harold Federow
<hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> Received on Wed Oct 23 1996 - 23:52:25 GMT