Experts

Dr. Peter Decherney

Professor of Cinema Studies and English.
School of Arts & Sciences.
University of Pennsylvania.


Dr. Decherney, who successfully petitioned in 2015 for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for professors using copyrighted video for the purpose of teaching massive online open courses, or MOOCs, focuses his research on media history, especially government regulation of Hollywood.

  • He is the author of the books Hollywood's Copyright Wars: From Edison to the Internet and Hollywood: A Very Short Introduction, which is due out in December.
  • He has published on and frequently lectures about fair use and academia.
  • In 2006, Dr. DeCherney successfully petitioned for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for media professors using video clips for teaching.

Quote:
 “It’s absolutely necessary in a media studies class to use video clips to look at questions of aesthetics and be able to analyze small details. It might also be true in a foreign language class, where you want to see the expression on someone’s face as you’re watching them speak. It could also be used in a biology class looking at a detailed microscopic image from a science video. It has implications across the curriculum.”

Media Contact

Jill DiSanto | 215.898.2956 | jdisanto@upenn.edu