Jewish Process Thought and Copyright Policy

Location:
Lewis Center
25 E Jackson Blvd
Chicago, IL 60604

Note:
In order to receive 1.5 General Illinois Continuing Legal Education credits, there is a charge of $20, and you must RSVP by February 7th, 2012 and give us your ARDC# in advance. Please send your check for $20 to DePaul University JLJS, 25 East Jackson Blvd, Chicago, 60604. To pay with a credit card, please contact Galit at 312-362-6274. Kosher lunch will be provided. Students must RSVP to Cecelia Story at cstory@depaul.edu in order to attend.

Contact Name:
Galit Gottlieb

Contact Email:
ggottlie@depaul.edu

Description:
What is the scope of copyright protection for copyrighted works that are designed to be continually developing? Can fluid works of authorship even be capable of copyright protection? Not much has been said or written about how copyright should address works of authorship that are, by their very essence, continually in progress or otherwise subject to change on an ongoing basis. In 2011, the Seventh Circuit grappled with a work subject to change. In Kelley v. Chicago Park District, the court held that a living garden of wildflowers composed of two enormous elliptical flowerbeds did not embody the type of authorship with fixation capable of supporting copyright protection. As a result of this ruling, the court also held that the garden was not protectable under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), which requires a copyrightable work as its predicate for protection. This talk relies on Kelley as a springboard to discuss certain critical issues of copyright law and policy that, until this case, have largely been overlooked in the discourse. It focuses specifically on the Jewish tradition’s version of Process Thought to inform our copyright policy concerning how we define eligible works of authorship and determine their appropriate scope of protection.