Re: Article on Protection of History

From: Jessica Litman <litman[_at_]mindspring.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 08:13:58 -0400

On 4/13/98, John J. Shaeffer <shaeffer[_at_]oslaw.com> wrote:
>
> I am in the research stage on an article addressing how the protections
> of works involving history under American Copyright law has not kept up
> with current understanding of history. My thesis is that American
> Copyright law continues to perceive history as an objective constant,
> and, thus, to prevent any one person from owning history, copyright law
> affords works founded on historical events very little protection.

     I can't recommend a good philosophical treatise on history, but you might want to take a look at Jane Ginsburg's 1982 article: Sabotaging and Reconstructing History: A Comment on the Scope of Copyright Protection in Works of History After Hoehling v. Universal City Studios, 29 Journal of the Copyright Society 647 (1982), which makes a similar argument.

---

Jessica Litman
Professor of Law, Wayne State University (Visiting Professor, Washington College of Law) litman[_at_]mindspring.com Received on Tue Apr 14 1998 - 12:13:47 GMT