Aaron Perzanowski

Perzanowski was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, and raised in nearby Bellaire, Ohio.{{Cite web |date=2016-11-24 |title=The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy, by Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/review-the-end-of-ownership-aaron-perzanowski-jason-schultz-mit-press |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=Times Higher Education (THE) |language=en}} He has a BA in philosophy from Kenyon College and earned a JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Perzanowski was an intellectual property litigator at Fenwick & West in San Francisco, California.{{Cite web |title=Legal News > Your source for information behind the law |url=https://legalnews.com/Home/Articles?DataId=1005719 |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=legalnews.com}} In 2008, he joined the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology as the Microsoft Research Fellow.{{Cite web |date=2016-05-27 |title=Digital Deceit: Study Reveals Consumer Misconceptions About Ownership Rights |url=https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/digital-deceit-study-reveals-consumer-misconceptions-ownership-rights/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=UC Berkeley Law |language=en-US}} He has taught at Wayne State University Law School, Notre Dame Law School, and Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he was named the John Homer Kapp Professor of Law.{{Cite web |date=2022-01-05 |title=Aaron Perzanowski Appointed to Chaired Professorship {{!}} School of Law {{!}} Case Western Reserve University |url=https://case.edu/law/our-school/news/aaron-perzanowski-appointed-chaired-professorship |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=case.edu |language=en}} He joined the Michigan Law faculty in 2022.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-20 |title=Michigan Law Hires New Faculty Members {{!}} University of Michigan Law School |url=https://michigan.law.umich.edu/news/michigan-law-hires-new-faculty-members |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=michigan.law.umich.edu |language=en}}

Perzanowski writes primarily about intellectual property law, with a focus on copyright.

Much of his work addresses the question of ownership in a digital economy. He co-authored a series of law review articles with Jason Schultz that examined the application of copyright’s first sale doctrine to digital media and embedded software, arguing that consumers should enjoy the right to alienate digital assets in much the same way they can resell or otherwise dispose of tangible goods.{{Cite web |last=uclalaw |date=2011-04-27 |title=Digital Exhaustion |url=https://www.uclalawreview.org/digital-exhaustion-2/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=UCLA Law Review |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Schultz |first=Aaron Perzanowski and Jason |date=2012-11-10 |title=Copyright Exhaustion and the Personal Use Dilemma lawreview - Minnesota Law Review |url=https://minnesotalawreview.org/article/copyright-exhaustion-personal-dilemma/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |last2=Schultz |first2=Jason |date=2015-02-01 |title=Reconciling Intellectual and Personal Property |url=https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol90/iss3/6/ |journal=Notre Dame Law Review |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=1211 |issn=0745-3515}}{{Cite journal |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |last2=Schultz |first2=Jason |date=2015-01-01 |title=Legislating Digital Exhaustion |url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/2606/ |journal=Articles}} In 2016, MIT Press published their book The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy, which argues for preserving consumer property rights in the face of the transition to a digital media environment.{{Cite book |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |url=https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4662/The-End-of-OwnershipPersonal-Property-in-the |title=The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy |last2=Schultz |first2=Jason |date=2016-11-04 |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-33595-9 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Fellmeth |first1=Aaron |last2=Kheschtchin-Kamel |first2=Amena |date=2019 |title=Reviewed work: THE END OF OWNERSHIP, Aaron Perzanowski, Jason Schultz |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27009992 |journal=Jurimetrics |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=399–408 |jstor=27009992}}

With Chris Jay Hoofnagle, Perzanowski devised an experiment to measure consumer expectations of ownership with respect to digital goods by creating a fictitious online retail site offering both physical and digital entertainment goods. They discovered that consumers often believe that digital goods and physical goods feature the same rights to use and transfer, despite license terms that restrict digital assets. However, they found that prominent short notices can correct consumer misperceptions. They argue that the use of terms like “buy” and “purchase” misleads consumers and should be considered false advertising.{{Cite journal |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |last2=Hoofnagle |first2=Chris |date=2017-01-01 |title=What We Buy When We Buy Now |url=https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/penn_law_review/vol165/iss2/2/ |journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review |volume=165 |issue=2 |pages=315}}

Perzanowski, Hoofnagle, and Aniket Kesari explored product tethering—the use of software and network connectivity to enable post-sale manufacturer control over consumer goods. This practice enables manufacturers to limit device functionality or even brick products, altering the terms of the initial bargain. Tethering also presents information risks because devices collect and share information on consumer behavior. It also reduces choice and competition in the market by raising switching costs and encouraging consumer lock-in.{{Cite web |last=Review |first=The George Washington Law |date=2019-10-01 |title=The Tethered Economy - |url=https://www.gwlr.org/the-tethered-economy/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |language=en-US}}

Perzanowski is a leading expert on the right to repair. He has published a number of law review articles on the topic.{{Cite journal |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |date=2023-03-28 |title=Mandating Repair Scores |url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/2899/ |journal=Articles}}{{Cite journal |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |date=2021-01-01 |title=Consumer Perceptions of the Right to Repair |url=https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol96/iss2/1/ |journal=96 Indiana Law Journal 361 (2021) |volume=96 |issue=2 |issn=0019-6665}}{{Cite journal |last=Rosborough |first=Anthony |last2=Perzanowski |first2=Aaron |date=2024-11-01 |title=Repair as Research: How Copyright Impedes Learning About Devices |url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/mtlr/vol30/iss2/5/ |journal=Michigan Technology Law Review |volume=30 |issue=2 |issn=2688-4941}} His 2022 book, The Right to Repair: Reclaiming the Things We Own, was published by Cambridge University Press and offers “a comprehensive and accessible account” of the ways in which manufacturers of consumer goods, industrial equipment, and other goods rely on product design, legal restrictions, and marketplace strategies to prevent owners from fixing the products they buy.{{Cite web |title=Consumerist Waste: Looking Beyond Repair |url=https://michiganlawreview.org/journal/consumerist-waste-looking-beyond-repair/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=Michigan Law Review |language=en-US}}

His research also explores how creative communities rely on informal social norms, rather than formal law, to govern practices, expectations, and disputes over the creation and use of expressive works. He has written extensively about the role such norms play in the tattoo industry, where tattooers discourage close copying of custom artwork but accept the widespread use of flash designs and commercial art.{{Cite web |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |date=2013-12-03 |title=Tattoos & IP Norms lawreview - Minnesota Law Review |url=https://minnesotalawreview.org/article/tattoos-ip-norms/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2023-04-28 |title=Volume 107 Headnotes: Spring Issue - Minnesota Law Review |url=https://minnesotalawreview.org/volume-107-headnotes-spring-issue/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |language=en-US}} With Dave Fagundes, he has described the use of clown eggs as an informal system for recording clowns' makeup designs to discourage copying.{{Cite journal |last=Fagundes |first=David |last2=Perzanowski |first2=Aaron |date=2019-01-01 |title=Clown Eggs |url=https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/faculty-articles/266/ |journal=Notre Dame Law Review |volume=94 |pages=1313}}{{Cite web |date=2017-12-06 |title=The fascinating reason why clowns paint their faces on eggs |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20171206-the-fascinating-reason-why-clowns-paint-their-faces-on-eggs |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}} Perzanowski and Kate Darling edited the book Creativity Without Law: Challenging the Assumptions of Intellectual Property (NYU Press, 2017), which collects a range of examples of creative communities that use social norms and market strategies as substitutes for formal intellectual property protection.{{Cite web |title=Download - Creativity Without Law |url=https://www.perzanow.ski/download-cwl |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=Aaron Perzanowski |language=en-US}}

Perzanowski has written on a range of other topics in intellectual property law, including the RAM copy doctrine,{{Cite journal |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |date=2010-01-01 |title=Fixing Ram Copies |url=https://repository.law.umich.edu/articles/2613/ |journal=Articles}} the scope of the Copyright Office's expertise,{{Cite journal |last=Perzanowski |first=Aaron |date=2018-01-01 |title=The Limits of Copyright Office Expertise |url=https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications/2050/ |journal=Faculty Publications}} the contours of copyright abandonment with Dave Fagundes,{{Cite journal |last=Fagundes |first=David |last2=Perzanowski |first2=Aaron |date=2020-01-01 |title=Abandoning Copyright |url=https://scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/faculty-articles/279/ |journal=William & Mary Law Review |volume=62 |pages=487}} and the use of popular music by political campaigns with Jake Linford.{{Cite journal |last=Linford |first=Jake |last2=Perzanowski |first2=Aaron |date=2024-03-01 |title=Calculating the Harms of Political Use of Popular Music |url=https://ir.law.fsu.edu/articles/834/ |journal=UC Law Journal |volume=75 |pages=293}}

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Category:American legal scholars

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