Symposium 2026: Origins, Evolution, and Possible Futures of the 1976 Copyright Act: Readings
Making the 1976 Act: The Role of Congress
- Peter S. Menell and David Nimmer, Author Empowerment in the Copyright Act of 1976: Work Made for Hire and Termination of Transfers, Berkeley Tech. L.J. (forthcoming)
- Peter S. Menell, The Making Of The Copyright Act Of 1976: Part I-Technocracy and Compromise, Berkeley Tech. L.J. (forthcoming)
- Molly S. Van Houweling, Private-Law Attorneys General, 108 Minn. L. Rev. Headnotes 201 (2024)
Recommended additional reading:
- Peter S. Menell, Charting the Making of the Copyright Act of 1976
- H. Comm on the Judiciary, Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law (Comm. Print 1961).
Copyright Reform in Congress: Insiders’ Perspectives
- Barbara A. Ringer, First Thoughts on the Copyright Act of 1976, 22 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 477 (1977)
- Barbara A. Ringer, The Unfinished Business of Copyright Revision, 24 UCLA L. Rev. 951 (1977)
- United States Copyright Office Copyright Law Revision Studies, https://www.copyright.gov/history/studies/.
- 17 U.S.C. § 111
Recommended additional reading:
- The Kaminstein Legislative History Project: A Compendium and Analytical Index of Materials Leading to the Copyright Act of 1976 (Alan Latman & James F. Lightstone eds., 1981-1985)
Copyright Adjudication Under the 1976 Act: Views from the Bench
- Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 137 F.3d 109 (2d Cir. 1998)
- Salinger v. Random House, 811 F.2d 90 (2d Cir. 1987)
- Authors Guild v. Google, Inc., 804 F.3d 202, 206 (2d Cir. 2015)
- Romanova v. Amilus Inc, 138 F.4th 104, 108 (2d Cir. 2025)
Recommended additional reading:
- Pierre N. Leval, Toward A Fair Use Standard, 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1105 (1990)
Applying and Developing the 1976 Act: The Role of Courts
- Shyamkrishna Balganesh, The Institutionalist Turn in Copyright, 2021 Sup. Ct. Rev. 417 (2022).
- Pamela Samuelson, Justifications for Fair Uses, 2025 Wis. L. Rev. 1048 (2025).
Recommended additional reading:
- Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Copyright as Legal Process: The Transformation of American Copyright Law, 168 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1101 (2020).
- Pamela Samuelson, A Riff on the Supreme Court's Copyright Cases Compared to Its Patent Cases, 104 B.U. L. Rev. 965 (2024).
Private Ordering and its Interaction with the 1976 Act
- Kristelia García, Selective Enforcement, 113 Geo. L. J. 1165 (2025)
- Xiyin Tang, Privatizing Copyright, 121 Mich. L. Rev. 753 (2023)
Implementing the Copyright Act: A Conversation with Registers of Copyright
- Ralph Oman, The 1976 Copyright Revision Revisited, 34 J. Copyright Soc'y 29 (1986).
- Maria A. Pallante, Books, Baseball, and Berne: The Copyright Act Turns 50, Landslide, Oct. 2, 2026
- Maria A. Pallante, The Next Great Copyright Act, 36 Colum. J.L. & Arts 315 (2013)
- Maria A. Pallante, The Next Generation of the Copyright Office: What it Means and Why It Matters, 61 J. Copyright Soc'y 213 (2014)
- Shira Perlmutter, Copyright Then and Now: A Half-Century of Change, 50 AIPLA Q.J. 559 (2022)
- U.S. Copyright Off., Authors, Attribution, and Integrity: Examining Moral Rights in the United States (Apr. 2019), https://www.copyright.gov/policy/moralrights/full-report.pdf.
Recommended additional reading:
- U.S. Copyright Off., Copyright and Artificial Intelligence: Part 1: Digital Replicas (July 2024), https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-1-Digital-Replicas-Report.pdf
- U.S. Copyright Off., Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 2: Copyrightability (Jan. 2025), https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf
- U.S. Copyright Off., Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 3: Generative AI Training (May 2025), https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-3-Generative-AI-Training-Report-Pre-Publication-Version.pdf
The Changing Role of the Copyright Office in Administering the 1976 Act
- Saurabh Vishnubhakat & Dave Fagundes, Copyright’s Administrative Law, 68 J. Copyright Soc’y USA 417 (2022)
- Perlmutter v. Blanche, No. 25-5285, 2025 WL 2627965 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 10, 2025)
Recommended additional reading:
- Eltra Corp. v. Ringer, 579 F.2d 294 (4th Cir. 1978)
- Intercollegiate Broad. Sys., Inc. v. Copyright Royalty Bd., 684 F.3d 1332 (D.C. Cir. 2012)
- Saurabh Vishnubhakat & Dave Fagundes, The Coming Copyright Judge Crisis, 98 N.Y.U. L. Rev. Online 1 (2023)
Reforming the 1976 Act — Directly and Indirectly
- Jane C. Ginsburg, Humanist Copyright, 6 J. Free Speech L. 91 (2025)
- Jennifer E. Rothman, Reframing Deepfakes, 49 Colum. J. L. & Arts 685 (2025)
Recommended additional reading:
- Jane C. Ginsburg & Graeme W. Austin, Deepfakes in Domestic and International Perspective, 48 Colum. J. L. & Arts 297 (2025)
- Jennifer E. Rothman, Copyrighting People, 72 J. Copyright Soc’y 1 (2024)