A2P2 issue briefs are designed to provide a quick introduction to an emerging topic in copyright or publishing. These handy summaries will help you keep abreast of and navigate developments in the rapidly changing scholarly communication landscape. All issue briefs are made available under a CC BY license.

  • Fair Use 2021: Two Cases to Know: Get up to speed on two recent decisions involving fair use, Google v. Oracle and Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith. (April 2021)
  • December 2020 Copyright Roundup: Learn about three copyright developments that happened during the final weeks of 2020: the proposal of a new draft bill seeking to reform the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and two new copyright provisions included within the year-end stimulus package. (January 2021)
  • Corbello v. Valli: Read about a recent Ninth Circuit decision holding that facts and fictionalized events presented as factual in nonfiction works are not protected under copyright. (September 2020)
  • Publisher Lawsuit Against Internet Archive: Learn more about the lawsuit against the Internet Archive, which alleges that making electronic copies of books available through Open Library and the National Emergency Library constitutes copyright infringement. (June 2020)
  • US Copyright Office Report on Section 512: Read about the Copyright Office’s new report reviewing Section 512, a part of US copyright law that provides a framework for copyright owners and online service providers to address copyright infringement online. Learn what industry, academics, and advocacy groups are saying about the Office’s recommendations. (May 2020)
  • COVID-19, Remote Education, and Copyright: Review a collection of resources developed to address questions raised about how copyright law applies to activities associated with the transition to remote education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. (April 2020)
  • Cambridge University Press v. Becker: Learn about the latest decision in the George State University (GSU) e-reserves case and what authors of works at issue in the case think about GSU’s fair use arguments. (March 2020)
  • Great Minds v. Office Depot: Understand how the Ninth and Second Circuit have interpreted the “non-commercial” element of Creative Commons licenses and what it means for educators or students using a for-profit enterprise like a copy shop to make copies of works licensed using a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license. (January 2020)
  • Allen v. Cooper: Learn why the outcome of the Allen v. Cooper, a case about sovereign immunity currently before the Supreme Court, matters to state-run libraries. (November 2019; last updated March 2020)
  • Controlled Digital Lending: Get up to speed on Controlled Digital Lending (“CDL”), a model in which libraries digitize works in their collections and circulate the digitized title in place of a physical one. Understand why some authors oppose CDL while others are in favor of the model. (September 2019)
  • The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019 (CASE Act): Learn more about the bill that was introduced in the House and Senate on May 1, 2019 to establish a small claims tribunal within the U.S. Copyright Office as an alternative to federal court for pursuing copyright claims. If passed, the CASE Act would affect how authors can enforce their copyrights or defend their use of copyrighted content. (August 2019)
  • ACS & Elsevier v. ResearchGate: Read about the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and Elsevier against ResearchGate, a for-profit professional social networking site where scientists and researchers can share, discover, and discuss research. Get tips to share with scholarly authors who want to share their articles broadly, including on sites like ResearchGate. (August 2019)