This course has an early drop deadline of December 1.

Prerequisites: By permission. Teaching Copyright is open to all Harvard Law School students who either have already taken a course on Copyright at HLS or will be enrolled in such a course during the Spring. Harvard Law School students who satisfy these requirements may enroll by emailing Lauren McCalla at lmccalla@law.harvard.edu by November 17. Other students may enroll only with the permission of the instructor. To seek such permission, please send a resume and an explanation of your interest and qualifications to tfisher@law.harvard.edu by November 17.

Exam Type: No Exam

This course is designed for students who are interested in deepening their knowledge of copyright law and gaining experience with law teaching. Each student in the course will be a Teaching Fellow for CopyrightX, an online copyright course taught by Prof. Fisher to roughly 500 students worldwide. The weekly meetings of the course have two functions: to provide an advanced seminar on copyright; and to provide students guidance and support as they learn to teach.

CopyrightX closely parallels the HLS course on Copyright. Like the HLS students, the CopyrightX students learn the essential elements of both doctrine and theory by watching videotaped lectures prepared by Prof. Fisher, reading cases and secondary materials, and watching webcast special events in which guest speakers examine controversial current topics. In addition, each CopyrightX student participates in a 25-person seminar led by a Teaching Fellow.

Each Teaching Fellow has two primary responsibilities: to conduct each week an 80-minute live online discussion that uses case studies to refine the student’s understanding of the pertinent laws and policies; and to draft or revise (at some point during the semester) one case study that will be employed both by Prof. Fisher and by the other Teaching Fellows to facilitate discussions. In addition, the Teaching Fellows will meet once a week with Prof. Fisher to discuss the issues addressed in the lecture and readings for that week and to exchange ideas concerning possible ways of teaching their own seminars. During most weeks, this meeting will be held during one of the time slots allocated to the regular Copyright course. On a few occasions, however, it will meet on a weekday evening.

Additional information concerning CopyrightX and the role of the Teaching Fellows can be found by visiting copyx.org or by emailing copyrightx[at]cyber.law.harvard.edu.

Note: The credit breakdown for this course is as follows: three total credits – two classroom credits and one writing credit.