Michael Carroll

BIOGRAPHY

Michael W. Carroll is Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (2009 – present). He teaches and writes about intellectual property law and cyberlaw. Professor Carroll's research focuses on the search for balance in intellectual property law over time in the face of challenges posed by new technologies. His research includes projects about the social costs imposed by one-size-fits-all intellectual property rights and about the history of copyright in music.

Professor Carroll also is recognized as a leading advocate for open access over the Internet to the research that appears in scholarly and scientific journals. He has written white papers and has given numerous presentations to university faculty, administrators, and staff around the country on this issue. In addition, he speaks about and promotes publication of open educational resources and open scientific data.

Professor Carroll is a founding member of Creative Commons, Inc. (2001 – 2015), a global organization that provides free, standardized copyright licenses to enable and to encourage legal sharing of creative and other copyrighted works. He remains involved with the Creative Commons USA project at WCL (2015 – present). He also serves on the Board of the Public Library of Science (2012 – present) and served on the National Research Council’s Board on Research Data and Information (2008–2013). In addition, he is an Academic Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology (2009 – Present).

Prior to joining the WCL faculty, Professor Carroll taught at the Villanova University School of Law (2001–09), and he served as a law clerk to Judge Judith W. Rogers, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Joyce Hens Green, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (1996–97; 2000–01) (now WilmerHale) in Washington, D.C. Prior to entering law school, Professor Carroll was a journalist in Chicago, a high school teacher in Zimbabwe, and a project assistant at the Africa-America Institute, where he worked on providing election monitoring and election assistance in Africa. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Chicago.

EDUCATION

• J.D., Georgetown University Law Center 1996
• A.B, University of Chicago 1986

Areas of specialization

• CONTRACTS
• COPYRIGHT LAW
• INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
• PRIVACY LAW
• INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
• INTERNET AND COMPUTER LAW
• TECHNOLOGY LAW
• LAW AND GOVERNMENT

PUBLICATIONS

• Michael W. Carroll, Remix, Reproduction, and Fair Use, in HANDBOOK ON MUSIC LAW & POLICY (Oxford University Press, Sean O’Connor, ed. Forthcoming).
• Michael W. Carroll, Libraries’ Shifting Roles and Responsibilities in the Networked Age, in LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES, AND PUBLIC LIFE (Patricia Demers, ed. Univ. Toronto Press 2020).
• Michael W. Carroll, COPYRIGHT LAW (11th ed. Carolina Academic Press 2019) (with Craig Joyce, Tyler Ochoa, Peter Jaszi and Marshall Leafer).
• Michael W. Carroll, Tailoring Intellectual Property Rights to Reduce Uniformity Cost, in RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON THE ECONOMICS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW (Edward Elgar Press, Peter Menell, Ben Depoorter and David Schwartz, eds. 2019).
• Michael W. Carroll, Copyright and the Progress of Science: Why Text and Data Mining Is Lawful, 53 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 893 (2019).
• Michael W. Carroll, OPEN SCIENCE BY DESIGN: REALIZING A VISION FOR 21ST CENTURY RESEARCH (National Academies Press 2018) (member of consensus study committee).
• Michael W. Carroll, Safe Harbors from Intermediary Liability and Social Media, in RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE LAW (Edward Elgar Press, John A. Rothchild, ed., 2016).
• Michael W. Carroll, Intellectual Property and Related Rights in Climate Data, in RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CLIMATE CHANGE (Edward Elgar Press, Joshua Sarnoff, ed. 2016).
• Michael W. Carroll, Sharing Research Data and Intellectual Property Law: A Primer, PLOS BIOLOGY 13(8) (2015).
• Michael W. Carroll, Pinterest and Copyright's Safe Harbors for Internet Providers, 68 U. MIAMI L. REV. 422 (2014).