Copyright Management Center Director

About the CMC Director, Kenneth D. Crews

*Effective 2008, Kenneth Crews will be relocating to Columbia University.
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Kenneth Crews is the Samuel R. Rosen II Professor in the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis and in the IU School of Library and Information Science. He is also Associate Dean of the Faculties for Copyright Management, and in that capacity he directs the Copyright Management Center based at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Professor Crews brings a variety of academic and professional experiences to his duties at the university. He earned his undergraduate degree in history from Northwestern University and received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. He practiced general business and corporate law in Los Angeles from 1980 to 1990, primarily for the entertainment industry. During those years, Crews returned to graduate school and he earned his M.L.S. and Ph.D. degrees from UCLA's School of Library and Information Science.

His principal research interest has been the relationship of copyright law to the needs of higher education. His first copyright book, Copyright, Fair Use, and the Challenge for Universities: Promoting the Progress of Higher Education, was published by The University of Chicago Press in October 1993, and it reevaluated understandings of copyright in the context of teaching and research at the university. A more recent book, Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators, published in a fully revised second edition by the American Library Association in 2006, is an instructive overview of copyright law. Crews has been an invited speaker on college and university campuses and at conferences in 39 states, D.C., and 7 foreign countries. During 2003, Crews was the Intellectual Property Scholar for the Center for Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Digital Environment, University of Maryland University College, and he currently serves as a faculty member for the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center.

Professor Crews was the first recipient of a major award from the American Library Association in 2005. Named for a leading advocate of public rights, the L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award was granted in a festive ceremony at the ALA Annual Meeting.

Photo of Kenneth D. Crews giving a
presentation at Syracuse University Crews brings a wide range of experience to the task. He has been a faculty member in three disciplines: law, business, and library and information science. His publications encompass the fields of copyright, constitutional law, political history, and library science. He has worked in a university archives and conducted historical research on windmills and tide mills on Long Island, NY for the National Park Service. In rare moments of recreation Crews enjoys bicycling, hiking, astronomy, archeology, art, and early rock and roll. He has a splendid and supportive wife (who looks back fondly on six years in UCLA family housing pressed against the San Diego Freeway) and two growing children (who are slowly discovering the joys of copyright law).

"My philosophy about copyright is the same as about a hobby: If I cannot reveal that it is intriguing, fun, relevant, and filled with surprises, I am not doing my job."
—Kenneth D. Crews

Select Publications by Kenneth D. Crews

Books

Copyright Law for Librarians and Educators. Second Edition. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 2006.
Copyright Essentials for Librarians and Educators. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 2000.
Copyright, Fair Use, and the Challenge for Universities: Promoting the Progress of Higher Education. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, October 1993.
Corwin's Constitution: Essays and Insights of Edward S. Corwin. New York; Greenwood Press, 1986.
Edward S. Corwin and the American Constitution: A Bibliographical Analysis. Foreword by Alpheus Thomas Mason. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.

Technical Monographs

Intellectual Property, Fair Use, and the Unbundling of Rights. Long Beach, CA: The Academic Senate of the California State University, 2003. [Kenneth Crews drafted substantial portions of this document; served as a consultant to CSU; and exanded upon earlier projects and policies.]
Copyright Law and Graduate Research: New Media, New Rights, and Your New Dissertation. Ann Arbor, MI: Bell & Howell Information and Learning, 2000.
Fair Use of Copyrighted Works: A Crucial Element in Educating America. Seal Beach, CA: CSU Chancellor's Office, 1995. [Prepared while serving as a consultant to a consortium of California State University, State University of New York, and City University of New York.]
University Copyright Policies. SPEC Kit No. 138. Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries, October 1987

Journal Articles

"Copyright Duration and the Progressive Degeneration of a Constitutional Doctrine." Syracuse Law Review 55 (2005): 189-250.
"The Law of Fair Use and the Illusion of Fair-Use Guidelines." The Ohio State Law Journal 62 (2001): 602-700.
"Distance Education and Copyright Law: The Limits and Meaning of Copyright Policy." Journal of College and University Law 27 (Summer 2000): 15-51.
"Perspectives on Fair-Use Guidelines for Education and Libraries." Edited by Kenneth D. Crews and Dwayne K. Buttler. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50 (December 1999): 1303-1357 [series of nine articles; three written by Prof. Crews].
"Fair Use of Unpublished Works: Burdens of Proof and the Integrity of Copyright." Arizona State Law Journal 31 (Spring 1999): 1-93.
"Harmonization and the Goals of Copyright: Property Rights or Cultural Progress?" Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 6 (Fall 1998): 117-138.
"Copyright and Distance Education: Displays, Performances and the Limitations of Current Law." In Growing Pains: Adapting Copyright for Libraries, Education, and Society, pp. 369-385. Edited by Laura N. Gasaway. Littleton, CO: Fred B. Rothman Co., 1997.
"Copyright at a Turning Point: Corporate Responses to the Changing Environment." Journal of Intellectual Property Law 3 (Spring 1996): 277-316.
"What Qualifies as 'Fair Use'?" Chronicle of Higher Education, May 17, 1996, pp. B1 & B2.
"Copyright Law and Information Policy Planning: Public Rights of Use in the 1990's and Beyond." Journal of Government Information 22 (1995): 87-99.

Last Updated: December 2007

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