Law Students Teach Copyright

An article in the New York Law Journal reports that Brooklyn Law School's BLIP Clinic has created a new curriculum to help New York City art students better understand copyright law to avoid violating intellectual property rights. Starting this fall, students from the Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy Clinic will vist high schools to conduct 50-minute sessions on the basics of copyright, fair use and how copyrighted material can be used to make new creative art. BLS law students will initially teach the classes, but the goal is to train high school art teachers to incorporate copyright basics into their courses.

The curriculum was developed by Charles Stanley, BLS Class of 2013, with other clinic members and funding from the NY State Bar Foundation. The BLIP Clinic, which Associate Professor Jonathan Askin founded in 2008, has provided legal support to more than 400 technology start-ups with the help of 25 BLS students each semester. Askin hopes to create a new generation of lawyers who recognize that current laws "don't necessarily apply well in a digital world" and who will work to transform the law "so it better enables artists and other creators and entrepreneurs to realize their vision."

BLS Reference Librarian Sara Gras created a LibGuide, Researching Copyright Law, for resources on copyright law at Brooklyn Law School. Pages on the guide list material on Statures and Regulations, Library Materials, Online Databases, Internet Resources, and Copyright and the Internet.