ALAN LATMAN

1930 - 1984

Alan was a founding partner of Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, P.C. Alan graduated from New York University and Harvard Law School, then spent several years in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Army. He was active in civil-rights affairs and served as defense counsel for protestors arrested during anti-nuclear energy demonstrations at the Indian Point power plant. Alan went on to be the first Walter J. Derenberg professor of copyright and trademark law at the New York University Law School. He negotiated a settlement with several major book publishers governing a university's right to photocopy materials for educational purposes. His study on the fair use of copyrighted materials was cited in both the majority and dissenting decisions in the United States Supreme Court's Betamax decision. Alan spent his career writing extensively on the history and development of copyright law. He was the author of a treatise and casebook on the subject, as well as of periodic columns in The New York Law Journal. Alan was a beloved pioneer in copyright law.