Princeton Demands Website Remove Elena Kagan's Thesis; Claiming Copyright Infringement
from the fair-use? dept
Obviously, there's been lots of talk about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in numerous areas. There have been various reports concerning Kagan's supposed views on copyright, but those seem pretty blown out of proportion from what I've seen and in talking to folks who know Kagan. She was a big supporter of the Berkman Center at Harvard, but that was part of her job. Other than her recommendation in the Cablevision case, there doesn't seem to be much to go on. In fact, I'm considerably more concerned with the idea that one of the leading contenders for Kagan's current job of Solicitor General is one of the entertainment industry's favorite legal attack dogs who led the industry's case in Grokster and was a major player in the Jammie Thomas trial before being appointed to the Justice Department (where he didn't last very long before moving over to the White House as associate White House counsel). Still, if Kagan really is a big supporter of fair use, you have to wonder what she thinks of the following situation.With everyone digging deeper and deeper to find out more about Kagan, the website Red State apparently dug up her undergraduate thesis and posted it to their website... leading Princeton to demand that the thesis be taken down -- not, of course, for political reasons, but copyright ones. The University is selling copies of her thesis, and apparently the commercial value just shot up:
It has been brought to my attention that you have posted Elena Kagan's senior thesis online.... Copies provided by the Princeton University Archives are governed by U.S. Copyright Law and are for private individual use only. Any electronic distribution is prohibited, as noted on the first page of the copy that is on your website. Therefore I request that you remove it immediately before further action is taken.Of course, ordering that the document be pulled down pretty much guarantees that it will get spread more widely -- and there's definitely a journalistic reporting defense for posting the document (though, I'm not particularly convinced that anything anyone wrote in college has much meaning once they've spent a few decades outside of college). And, of course, in trying to get the document taken down, it's just going to lead conspiracy-minded folks to think there's more to the document than there is (in actuality, it's a rather bland historical analysis, but you wouldn't know that from what some sites are claiming about it). But from a journalistic standpoint, it seems you could make a decent argument for fair use in distributing the document. In fact, publications like Newsweek are already sharing parts of the thesis as well (mostly to debunk the hysteria around it). It's difficult to see what Princeton gained in issuing the takedown notice, other than to rile up people.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, elena kagan, princeton, thesis
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Second, the notice requirement was not abolished until 1989.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A sheltered life
Most of what she has said has gone against our republican form of government with it's representative democracy.
The most troubling of her writings is that the government has a right to restrict freedom of speech if that speech is not liked by the government.
So I find her very troubling.
Not only for her socialist laments.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A sheltered life
Case in point: I repeated Thomas Jefferson's views on intellectual property without sourcing the quote to see the reaction I'd get.
Sure enough, the views of one of America's founding fathers father were called unamerican and socialist. Heh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: A sheltered life
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: A sheltered life
Sure slaves and IP are both illegitimate forms of property. But even then it's not relevant to anything in this topic.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: A sheltered life
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ms. Kagan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ms. Kagan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Ms. Kagan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ms. Kagan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
That's why. There's no good reason to open up techdirt to a lawsuit, especially when it can already be found elsewhere.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Do they automatically receive copyright upon any and all work perfomrd by students? How is this accomplished? I could possibly understand if the student education costs were being paid for by the university, but this is usually not the case. I thought the student retained copyright upon all their work, guess not.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As for fair use, you can't post the entire document and claim fair use, only excerpts. (Otherwise the exception would swallow the rule)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
False.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
(In other words, "link?")
Of course it's all academic (no pun intended) at this point, as there's no indication that Kagan *does* want to stop such use, and the Princeton guy that sent the e-mail acknowledged in some other interview that Princeton doesn't own the copyright (and implied they don't have exclusive licensee standing either).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Princeton does not, therefore, have to OWN the copyright -- or even the constituent reproduction or distribution rights in the copyright -- that attaches to Kagan's thesis in order to file suit to enjoin others from reproducing or distributing the thesis. Princeton must only own the exclusive license to do either.
I have no idea whether Princeton owns the exclusive license to reproduce or distribute Kagan's thesis. And I seriously doubt that it does. Bit if it does, it has standing to take lawful action to stop others from reproducing or distributing the thesis.
The resolution of this issue turns on the rights that Kagan conferred to Princeton by her submission of her thesis to Princeton in order to graduate. Both Kagan and Princeton are private actors -- and so the contract [in the broad sense] that those two entered into for Princeton's provision of educational services in exchange for her tuition will control. The documents that comprise that contract are multiple and varied - e.g., the student handbook, the university rules, financial aid forms, etc.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Which they do not require. They may have in the 1980s, but as far as I'm aware, they only ever request the right to reproduce the work without paying the author, but only for personal/scholarly work.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And just so I don't get accused of being a pinko commie for making a resoned response, I think a judge would make a better justice.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A RAT !
the consitution ? A filthy Liar !!!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]