Edward is Co-director of Chicago-Kent’s program in intellectual property law, and a co-author of two leading casebooks, The Law of Design and International Intellectual Property. Using empirical methods, his scholarship provides a better understanding of music lawsuits. Edwards 2018 study showed that nearly all music cases decided since 1978 have avoided consideration of fair use outside of parodies. He describes this phenomenon as Fair Use Avoidance. His 2020 experimental study (with Dr. Andrew Moshirnia) established that such fair use avoidance is potentially costly to musicians. His analysis of music decisions has been published by Billboard and Washington Post. Edward tracks music copyright disputes and his research on companion websites, Music Infringement, and Music Fair Use.
