William W. Fisher III, Harvard Law School Professor, to deliver talk on Alternative Compensation Systems for Digital Entertainment

The music industry is in crisis. The film industry may soon succumb to the same disease. This Friday, Harvard Law Professor William W. Fisher III will discuss his proposal for legal reforms and business models that, in combination, might offer us a cure. The lecture will be held on Friday, November 21 at 4:00 p.m. in Room 3043 of Duke Law School.

The New York Times has described Fisher's proposal as one that "represent[s] what is not much in evidence today -- some sort of middle ground that would compensate rights holders but also move with the march of technology and consumer behavior instead of merely trying to fight it." The Wall Street Journal called it "a more radical proposal for overhauling the copyright system." Fisher's book on the subject, Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment, will be published by Stanford University Press in 2004.

This lecture is open to all. It will be followed by a reception on the 3rd floor loggia of the law school, and is sponsored by Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain as part of the Information Ecology lecture series.