Introduction to Copyright Law

The course provides an introduction to copyright law and American law in general.

Course Highlights
This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

Course Description
This course is an introduction to copyright law and American law in general.

Topics covered include:

1. Structure of federal law;
2. Basics of legal research;
3. Legal citations;
4. How to use LexisNexis®;
5. The 1976 Copyright Act;
6. Copyright as applied to music, computers, broadcasting, and education;
7. Fair use;
8. Napster®, Grokster®, and Peer-to-Peer file-sharing;
9. Library Access to Music Project;
10. The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act;
11. DVDs and encryption;
12. Software licensing;
13. The GNU® General Public License and free software.

Instructor: Keith Winstein

Price: Free