My rather lengthy review of Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz’s new book, The End of Ownership, resulted in Jason Schultz agreeing to speak on the panel “Circumventing the Future: The Fate of Section 1201” at our Copyright and Technology conference, which is coming up on January 24th at the Kimmel Center at NYU.  I had known Schultz when he was at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but now he’s on the “home team” as a faculty member at NYU Law School.

The End of Ownership talks quite a bit about Section 1201, the section of the copyright law that makes it a violation to hack DRMs or distribute DRM hacks.  The heyday of 1201-related litigations was many years ago, but it’s back in the news nowadays as both the subject of a litigation brought by Schultz’s alma mater the EFF and a study being done by the Copyright Office on the provision’s triennial rulemaking process.

The position Perzanowski and Schultz take in their book is very much against 1201, especially given that it has been taken far away from the context of typical creative works and (mis-)applied to such things as laser printer toner cartridges and garage door openers.  They grudgingly allow that it might be applicable to help enforce content access models other than ownership, such as subscription services and library lending.

In any case, Jason Schultz should have a lot to add to our panel at the conference next month.  Why haven’t you registered for it yet?