Cultural Environmentalism at 10: Long Spokes and Short Stakes: Cultural Environmentalism, Copyright Law, and Copyright Practice

"Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of man," William Empson reminded us. This paper will explore the ways in which the law's impulse to generalize complicates the project of cultural environmentalism, which seeks to build a coalition of groups with very different interests and practices. Though cultural environmentalism attempts to provide an overarching metaphor for preserving a cultural commons for future creators and users of various types of information products, including copyrighted works, the move from the general principle to the specific activities to be protected will be difficult at best.

About the Speaker: Rebecca Tushnet is an assistant professor at the New York University School of Law (visiting Georgetown, 2004-2005).