Jessica Litman, the John F. Nickoll Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, delivered the 2018 David L. Lange Lecture in Intellectual Property, "Before and After the Copyright Wars." Prof. Litman is the author of "Digital Copyright," which traces the history of lobbying that led to the passage in 1998 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In this talk, Professor Litman challenges the conventional paradigm of copyright statutory interpretation, under which unlicensed uses of copyrighted works are deemed infringing unless excused.That rubric was never accurate, she argues, and relying on it has distorted our thinking.In particular, it has encouraged us to give short shrift to the core importance in the copyright scheme of reading, listening, viewing, watching, playing and using copyrighted works.