Law School faculty spotlight: Prof. Bruce Boyden — can the law keep up with technology

Can the law keep up with technology?

When a major copyright case involving an internet service provider reached the U.S. Supreme Court, Prof. Bruce Boyden saw something important at stake. The case raised a very modern question: if an internet company is repeatedly told that its customers are illegally sharing music, movies or other copyrighted material, does the company have a responsibility to step in?

Copyright law was largely developed long before the internet made it possible to copy and share information instantly. Courts today are often asked to apply decades-old rules to brand-new technology. But Boyden worried that judges are treating copyright as a rigid set of technical rules instead of allowing it to evolve through court decisions.

In a brief he filed with the Supreme Court, he argued that judges should rely on broader, common-sense legal principles that have guided courts for generations. In other areas of law, especially personal injury law, courts often ask practical questions: Did someone know about another person's plan to do something harmful? Did they contribute to it? Could they reasonably have prevented it? Boyden believes those same questions can help courts decide when an internet company should be responsible for copyright violations happening on its network.

This issue is not entirely new. During the Industrial Revolution, companies tried to avoid responsibility for harm caused by their employees. Over time, courts developed rules holding businesses accountable when employees were acting as part of their jobs. Boyden sees a similar evolution happening today with large internet providers.

In the 1990s, Congress gave online platforms significant legal protections, recognizing that it would be impossible to hold them responsible for everything their users do. But those protections were never meant to be unlimited. In extreme situations - when a company clearly knows about ongoing wrongdoing and has the ability to stop it - Boyden says it should be required to do something.

Boyden hopes people come away with a reassuring insight: the law may seem slow, but it is often more adaptable than we think. "You often hear that law can't keep up with technology," he says. "But sometimes the old law is perfectly capable of meeting modern needs. We just need to remember that we have it."

Boyden teaches privacy law, copyright, intellectual property, civil procedure and internet law His scholarship focuses on the evolution of copyright and privacy law in response to technological and social change. He is currently researching minimal creativity for selections under copyright law. Boyden is a graduate of Yale Law School and also holds an M.A. in history from Northwestern University and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Arkansas.