CopyrightX is a twelve-week networked course that has been offered annually since 2013 under the auspices of Harvard Law School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. The course will next be taught from January to May of 2025.

The course explores the current law of copyright; the impact of that law on art, entertainment, and industry; and the ongoing debates concerning how the law should be reformed. Through a combination of recorded lectures, assigned readings, weekly seminars, live interactive webcasts, and online discussions, participants in the course examine and assess the ways in which the copyright system seeks to stimulate and regulate creative expression.

The CopyrightX community has three components: (a) a residential course on Copyright Law, taught by Prof. William Fisher at Harvard Law School; (b) an online course divided into sections of 25 students (each section taught by a Harvard Teaching Fellow); and (c) a set of affiliated courses, most of which are based in countries other than the United States, each taught by an expert in copyright law.

Admission

Admission to the Harvard Law School course is limited to current students at Harvard University.

Admission to the online course is open to any member of the public at least 13 years of age. However, enrollment is limited and admission is selective. Persons interested in taking the 2025 version of the course must apply prior to 1800 UTC on December 31, 2024, by following the steps described at Copyright 2025 Application Procedure. Additional information concerning the admission process is available at CopyrightX Admission FAQ. To receive announcements and updates from the CopyrightX course team, including information about how to apply for future iterations of the online course, please join CopyrightX’s public mailing list.

The criteria for admission to each of the affiliated courses are set by the course’s instructor.

Affiliates

In 2021, the affiliates were:

Lists of the affiliates in previous years are accessible here.

Accessibility

In three ways, we have tried to make the CopyrightX materials accessible to all persons interested in learning about the copyright system. First, the syllabi for the Harvard Law School course and the online sections contain links to the reading materials in three alternative formats, two of which have been optimized for accessibility. Second, this website has been audited and adjusted to improve its accessibility. Finally, the recordings of all of the lectures include closed captioning. (Instructions for viewing the lectures with captions are available at CopyrightX: Lectures.)

We welcome suggestions concerning how we could do more. If you experience challenges accessing the CopyrightX materials, please send an email message to copyrightXcourse@gmail.com.

Assessments

Descriptions and evaluations of CopyrightX may be found by following the following links:

Reports from the teachers of some of the affiliated courses are listed below:

CopyrightX is described in detail in William W. Fisher III, Lessons from CopyrightX, in Ruth Okediji, ed., Copyright Law in an Age of Limitations and Exceptions (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Information concerning the genesis and pedagogy of CopyrightX, the fruits of the 2013 version, and the design of the 2014 version may also be found in the 2013 Course Report.

Community Contributions

Listed below are a variety of resources that were created by members of the CopyrightX community. We welcome additional contributions of this sort. Translations of the course materials and adaptations of the materials that increase their accessibility to people with disabilities are particularly encouraged.

Guest Presentations