How does the law define the practice of architecture? With the establishment of the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990, architecture joined music, literature, motion pictures, computer programs, and other disciplines to be protected "expressions of ideas" under the law. The law serves ostensibly to protect architects, but how does the law affect the design process and serve to define or limit the discipline? Bill Patry, an eminent copyright lawyer and policy commentator who helped draft the initial legislation, will discuss how the law was developed and how time has illustrated the law's strengths and weaknesses. Joining him are Melissa Billig and Robert Banner, two practicing copyright lawyers who will discuss contemporary legal case studies involving copyright infringement claims. In conversation, they will help chart out where the future of the relationship between architecture and the law.
This program is part of a series of conversations related to Un/Fair Use, an exhibition of research and proposals related to copying and copyright in architecture. Appropriation is as much a part of architecture as the expectation of novelty, and so it is at the very core of the discipline. Architecture advances via comment, criticism, parody, and innovation, forms of appropriation that fall under the umbrella of fair use. But what about when appropriation is deemed unfair? Where and how are the lines drawn around permissible use? Un/fair Use probes that legal boundary.
Speakers:William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google Inc.; Author, How to Fix CopyrightRobert A. Banner, Partner, Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, LLP.Melissa Billig, Partner, Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, LLP.
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