News & Features

Leading intellectual property law expert to address fundamental questions of copyright in lecture, “Copyright and the Dead Sea Scrolls” By C. Genevieve Jenkins '09
William & Mary Law School



David Nimmer, one of the nation’s leading experts on intellectual property law, will present the first Stanley H. Mervis Lecture on Monday, Nov. 6, 2006. The lecture, titled “Copyright and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” will be held at 1:00 p.m. in Room 124 at the Law School. Admission is free and all are welcome.

The Israeli Supreme Court’s controversial opinion in Qimron v. Shanks (2000) considered the application of copyright law to a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Qimron, one of the primary translators of the scrolls, brought a copyright infringement suit against Shanks and the other editors of the Biblical Archaeology Review for publishing the translated text of the scrolls in a book called “Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls” without Qimron’s permission. In response to Qimron’s claims, Shanks asked the inevitable question: How can someone have copyright in something of which he was not the original author? Although the Court agreed that Qimron did not have a copyright in the “raw material”— that is, he could not prevent other people from looking at, copying or translating the scrolls — it concluded that he could claim a copyright in his specific translation because his interpretation and piecing together of the existing textual strands was sufficient to constitute original authorship.

Exploring the issues raised by the case, Nimmer now asks, What constitutes authorship and originality? Should courts permit the propertization of academic research? Can one truly own cultural information? His lecture will address these and other philosophical questions of intellectual property law raised by Qimron v. Shanks.

As revision editor of the renowned Nimmer on Copyright since 1985, David Nimmer has greatly influenced the field of copyright law. The publication, first published in 1963 by his late father, is recognized as the standard treatise in the field and has been widely cited by courts at all levels in both the U.S. and abroad.

Nimmer earned an A.B. from Stanford University and a J.D. from Yale University, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is of counsel at Irell & Manella in Los Angeles, where he represents clients in the entertainment, publishing, and high-technology fields. He has testified before Congress and Parliament, served as chairman of the ABA’s Committee on Intellectual Properties Litigation, and published a number of influential articles on U.S. and international copyright law.

The Stanley H. Mervis Lectureship in Intellectual Property was created in memory of Stanley Mervis in 2003 by his family and friends. Mr. Mervis, a member of the William & Mary Law School Class of 1950, was patent counsel for Polaroid Corporation for most of his career and was actively involved in important patent and intellectual property issues.

For more information on the lecture, please call 757-221-1840 or e-mail lawcom@wm.edu.