_____________________________
Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology PolicyThe anti-copyright crowd have a few different ways to turn astroturf into deceptively scholarly work product. One way is to take over otherwise credible brands to insert their own truthiness.In a highly predictable move, the American Law Institute, a reliable old brand in the law, appears to have had some sudden interest in writing up a “Restatement of Copyright” treatise. The ALI’s restatements of the law have been around a very long time, but they mostly deal with bodies of law that rely heavily on judge-made law such as agency, property or contracts.The advantage of having a Restatement that says what you want it to say is that those toiling against artists and songwriters can cite it as an authoritative source in legal briefs, scholarly writings, amicus briefs, etc. Handy, eh?The ALI Restatement of Copyright seems to have been the brainchild of one Pamela Samuelson, she of the Samuelson-Glushko technology and policy legal academic centers–Silicon Valley’s answer to the Confucious Institutes. The project is nominally under the watchful eye of Professor Christopher Sprigman, from whose intellectual loins sprang Spotify’s defense of “sorry just kidding” in the Bluewater lawsuit for Spotify’s alleged nonpayment of mechanical royalties. Sprigman is trying to convince the court that mechanical royalties don’t exist, don’t you know.The Restatement of Copyright has been on the horizon for quite some time as it takes a lot of effort to produce one of these treatises. So naturally, one must ask–why the sudden interest at the American Law Institute in such a costly project that we’ve struggled along without for a hundred years or so? You don’t suppose someone is…paying for the costs of this work? And who might be interested in picking up the tab for the project?Perhaps the same company that paid for five–count ’em–five–research projects by Professor Sprigman. That we know of.
