Re: Exam hypotheticals ...

On Fri, 8 Jan 1999, David Post <postd[_at_]erols.com> wrote:
>
> As I'm finishing my grading of last semester's exams, I'm re-energized
> in my search for the perfect exam for upcoming classes. I'm teaching
> copyright law and computer law this semester, and want to try out a
> different format -- at least for copyright, and maybe for computer law
> as well -- that I've never used myself but which I recall worked well
> when I was a student and subject to it from the other end. I'm
> thinking of handing out a *long* hypothetical, far in advance of the
> exam date, and telling students they should begin working through it
> and identifying all of the issues that are there -- for the exam,
> I'll choose a subset of those to ask them about. The hypo needs to
> sufficiently rich and complicated and detailed that it has *lots* of
> potential issues, both so that students who really work through it
> cover a lot of ground and are forced to think about a wide sweep of
> questions, and so that it can be re-used from year to year (or by
> other instructors) without diminishing its usefulness.

See the news story at <http://www.callaw.com/stories/edt1207.html>, entitled "Voices in the Copyright Wilderness: An Aboriginal Couple's Fight for Recognition and a Piece of Recording Industry Profits Could Break New legal Ground."

The facts involve a Taiwanese couple who sang a folk song, whose performance was captured by a researcher, whose recording was subsequently used at the Olympics and a sample of which was used by a French pop artist whose phonorecords were subsequently distributed in the U.S. and elsewhere.

When I first read the article, it was apparent to me that it'd make a great question on a copyright final exam. You've got at least two works, the song and the recording of the song; two potential author claimants (the Kuos (the couple whose performance was recorded) and Hsu (the researcher)); the issue of innocent infringement, the issue of conflicting transfers, registration requirements, statute of limitations, reproduction and performance rights (including the performance rights' limitations for sound recordings); choice-of-law and Berne Convention nationality, and, of course, fair use.  

-- 
Terry Carroll       | "Report of the Committee On Governmental Affairs,
Santa Clara, CA     | United States Senate, To Accompany S. 1364, An Act To
carroll[_at_]tjc.com     | Eliminate Unnecessary and Wasteful Federal Reports."
Modell delendus est |  - Title of U.S. Senate Report 105-187, May 11, 1998