Michael Carrier Seminar: 'Pioneering Peer-to-Peer and Other Disruptive Dual-Use Technologies'

Held in the Upper Hall, Emmanuel College.

Question: What do the VCR, computer, CD burner, iPod, TiVo, and peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software have in common?

Answer: They can be utilized (1) to create revolutionary new forms of interaction and entertainment or (2) to facilitate widespread copyright infringement.

While these dual-use technologies offer path-breaking innovations, they have been continually under assault in U.S. courts' analyses. They are evaluated in their infancy when their capabilities can barely be discerned. And they do not stand a chance against the widespread, concrete instances of infringement offered by copyright holders. In my talk, I will discuss these issues. And I will explain why the tradeoff between innovation and creativity is not as intractable as most courts and scholars have thought.

I conclude by recommending a return to the test the U.S. Supreme Court offered in Sony v. Universal, which required that a technology need only be capable of a substantial non-infringing use to avoid copyright liability. Such a test would benefit P2P technology, offering benefits for distribution, the "long tail," and promotion. More generally, it would promote the radical, disruptive innovation that consumers relish, that challenges the entrenched copyright industries, and that is barely visible in the tip of the innovation iceberg.

Michael A. Carrier is a Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law - Camden. He has published and spoken widely on the antitrust and intellectual property laws, and is a leading authority in the United States on the intersection of these laws. His book, Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law, was published by Oxford University Press in 2009, and he is the editor of the forthcoming volume, Critical Concepts in Intellectual Property Law: Competition (Edward Elgar Publishing 2010).

Professor Carrier's work has appeared in the Stanford Law Review, Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Iowa Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Pocket Part. Before entering academia, he clerked for the Honorable John D. Butzner, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and practiced antitrust, intellectual property, and sports law at Covington & Burling, in Washington, D.C. Professor Carrier is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University and a cum laude graduate of Michigan Law School, where he was Book Review Editor of the Michigan Law Review.