The Future of the Copyright Act Symposium
October 2, 2026
8:30 am - 6 pm
October 3, 2026
8:30 am - 2 pm
Location: Online and Faculty Conference Center, GW Law
About the Symposium
As the Copyright Act of 1976 approaches its 50th anniversary, this symposium brings leading scholars together to examine what the next era of copyright law should look like. Are incremental updates enough, or is it time for Congress to rethink the Act in light of a new technological and cultural landscape?
Over two days at GW Law, experts from across the country will:
- Present and comment on 14 scholarly papers
- Explore areas most in need of clarification or reform
- Participate in a lunch conversation on the future of the 1976 Act featuring Jane Ginsburg, Paul Goldstein, Jessica Litman, and Pam Samuelson, moderated by Robert Brauneis
All papers and commentary will be published in the Journal of the Copyright Society, a co‑sponsor of the event. Professors Robert Brauneis, Elizabeth Townsend Gard, and Alfred Yen serve as lead organizers.
*Due to room capacity, most attendees will join via livestream. A recording will also be available afterward. To request in‑person attendance, please contact Professor Robert Brauneis at rbraun
law [dot] gwu [dot] edu (rbraun[at]law[dot]gwu[dot]edu).
Papers and Commentators
| Name | Topic | Commentator |
|---|---|---|
| Shyam Balganesh and Peter Menell | A Dynamic Theory of the Progress Clause: Copyright, Congress, and American Democracy | Jessica Silbey |
| Graeme Dinwoodie | The Future of International Influences on Copyright | Marketa Trimble |
| James Grimmelmann | Our Byzantine Secondary Infringement System | Felix Wu |
| Laura Heymann | Semantic Satiation and the Copyright Act | Robert Brauneis |
| Justin Hughes | Constitutional Copyright and the Meaning of Postponed Matters | Zvi Rosen |
| Joseph Liu | Deregulatory Copyright | Benjamin Sobel |
| Lateef Mtima | Mutual Human Actualization and the 1976 Copyright Act: Towards Copyright Social Justice | Trevor Reed |
| Jacob Noti-Victor | Section 115’s Many Lives: Lessons for Copyright Regulation | Lauren Wilson |
| Anthony Reese | The 1976 Copyright Act, As (Much and Frequently) Amended: General Revision in Piecemeal Form? | Jane Ginsburg and Jessica Litman |
| Matthew Sag | Fair Use @ 50 | Michael Carroll |
| Pamela Samuelson | Copyright Exceptionalism | Alfred Yen |
| Xiyin Tang | Insuring the Future of Copyright | Rachel Landy |
| Elizabeth Townsend Gard | Duration Doesn’t Matter | Graeme Dinwoodie |
| Rebecca Tushnet | A Sort of Legal Garbage Can - Fair Use Today | Paul Goldstein |