Publications

Copyright's Communications Policy

by Tim Wu

April 2004

This paper suggest that the main challenges for 21st century copyright are not challenges of authorship policy, but rather new and harder problems for copyright’s communications policy. Since its inception copyright has set important baselines upon which publishers and their modern equivalents compete.business. As the pace of technological change accelerates, copyright’s… more »

Property Law

by Michael A. Heller

September 2003

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Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination

by Tim Wu

June 2003

This paper examines the the concept of network neutrality in telecommunications policy and its relationship to Darwinian theories of innovation. It also considers the record of broadband discrimination practiced by broadband operators in the early 2000s.… more »

When Code Isn't Law

by Tim Wu

June 2003

The prominent effects of computer code have made it difficult to ignore the fact that code can be used to produce regulatory effects similar to laws. Hence, the popularity of the idea that (for computer users at least) “code is law.” But the idea remains extremely vague. Most problematically, none of… more »

Patent Signals

by Clarisa Long

November 2002

Courts and commentators often treat intellectual property as if the private value of the rights stemmed entirely from the control legal rules conferred over the protected subject matter. While the literature has devoted an enormous amount of time, paper, and ink to the discussion of whether or not legal rules grant… more »

The Liberal Commons

by Hanoch Dagan and Michael A. Heller

September 2001

Must we choose between the benefits of cooperative use of scarce resources and our liberal commitments to autonomy and exit? No. Law can mediate community and liberty ? a theory of the liberal commons provides the bridge that reconciles these two seemingly contradictory imperatives. Liberal commons institutions enable a limited group… more »

The Dissonance of Scientific and Legal Norms

by Clarisa Long

January 2001

Scientific research is facilitated by informational externalities. By directing informational flows, intellectual property law creates incentives for researchers to refrain from publishing research results before seeking intellectual property protection, to retain control of information, and to release research results strategically. Open communication and the sharing of research results, on the other… more »

The Dynamic Analytics of Property Law

by Michael A. Heller

January 2001

The standard property trilogy of private, commons, and state has become so outdated that it now impedes imagination and innovation at the frontiers of ownership. This essay suggests two approaches – creating new ideal types and synthesizing existing ones – that may help update our static property metaphors. Using these dynamic… more »

Lessons from Fiascos in Russian Corporate Governance

by Merrit B. Fox and Michael A. Heller

October 1999

Bad corporate governance is often invoked to explain poor enterprise performance, but the catch phrase is never precisely defined. Neither its consequences for the real economy, nor its causes in particular countries has been adequately explained. This paper uses Russian enterprise examples to address these open questions in corporate governance theory.… more »