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Technological innovation challenges the law in many ways. This challenge is perhaps most acutely felt in copyright, where changes in technology affect consumers, distributors, and creators of content alike. With the advent of the “Next Great Copyright Act,” this conference will consider what copyright policy in the new digital age should look like.

The first panel will consider how technological developments have changed the way in which artists create new content. What opportunities and challenges do new technologies and business models present for creators, and how can copyright law – and doctrines like fair use and transformative works – help or hurt these artists?

The second panel will ask whether and how the law can encourage the creative and tech industries to work toward a common goal of innovation in the creation and dissemination of content? How have changes in technology affected consumer preferences, and vice versa? What role, if any, does copyright – and things like the first sale doctrine – play in either supporting or thwarting these changes?

These questions define the contemporary debate in technology & copyright. In HathiTrust v. Authors Guild, the 2nd Circuit rejected a lawsuit for copyright infringement against digital library HathiTrust for using books scanned by Google. Meanwhile, non-profit organizations like the newly-formed Authors Alliance not only embrace, but actively promote, digital technology for the dissemination of content. While some conferences have focused on the intersection of copyright and technology, too few have focused specifically on the content that drives that technology, the people who create that content, and the companies responsible for getting that content into the hands of users.

In a closing fireside chat, Maria Pallante, U.S. Register of Copyrights, will engage in a conversation about the changing face of copyright policy in the face of new technologies. The conventional view pits artist (and copyright holder) against tech company in the battle for control over digital content. The reality, however, is that many of today’s most popular technologies rely on content created by artists to attract consumers. Artists, in turn, rely on those technologies to distribute the work that they create. This conversation will thus explore how developments in technology and the concomitant changes in consumer preferences are challenging artists and tech companies alike, forcing both to constantly innovate in order to thrive in the new digital age and raising questions as to what statutory changes will be necessary to adapt copyright law to the digital age.