Cotter's Article Cited in Federal District Court Opinion

A federal district court extensively cited Professor Thomas Cotter's article, "Toward a Functional Definition of Publication in Copyright Law," 92 Minnesota Law Review 1724 (2008), in Moberg v. 33T LLC, __ F. Supp. 2d __, 2009 WL 3182606 (D.N.J. Oct. 6, 2009). At issue was whether, under U.S. copyright law, posting a work of authorship on the Internet constitutes a publication of the work; and if so whether the publication should be deemed to occur only in the country in which the work is uploaded or, simultaneously, everywhere in the world. Cotter's article discusses the complexities of resolving these issues, and the practical consequences of different possible resolutions, under U.S. law and the Berne Convention, an international copyright treaty.