Copyright and Innovation in Legal Course Materials

Legal Education in the Digital Age. Ed. Edward Rubin. Cambridge University Press, 2012

UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2012-55

Posted: 1 Jun 2012 Last revised: 1 Jan 2013

See all articles by R. Anthony Reese

R. Anthony Reese

University of California, Irvine School of Law

Date Written: ,

Abstract

This chapter considers how copyright law might affect the development of the future of the casebook, traditionally the principal course material in law school teaching. Part A discusses copyright’s relationship to the preparation of traditional casebooks — in particular, the fact that the kinds of materials that authors have generally included in such casebooks (including court opinions, statutes, regulations, legislative history) are almost all in the public domain in the United States. Authors have therefore been able to use these materials freely without seeking any copyright permission or paying license fees. Part B argues that the lack of copyright in the traditional casebook’s principal ingredients may leave authors and publishers of such casebooks more free to experiment with new methods of distribution, new business models, and customizability than authors and publishers of textbooks in other disciplines that include third-party materials protected by copyright. Part C suggests, however, that the longstanding reliance on public domain materials in traditional casebooks may leave authors and publishers of legal course materials less prepared to experiment with incorporating a wider variety of source material — particularly copyright-protected works of third parties — into the “casebook of the future.”

Suggested Citation

Reese, R. Anthony, Copyright and Innovation in Legal Course Materials (,). Legal Education in the Digital Age. Ed. Edward Rubin. Cambridge University Press, 2012, UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2012-55, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2071443

R. Anthony Reese (Contact Author)

University of California, Irvine School of Law ( email )

401 East Peltason Drive, Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-1000
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/treese.html

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