LRI Legal History: AI, Technology & Authorship: A Perspective from Copyright Jurisprudence in India

Dr. Lawrence Liang is Professor of Law, and the Founding Dean of the School of Legal and Socio-Political Studies at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi. Prior to this, he was one of the founders of the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, where he worked for fifteen years. His work lies at the intersection of law, culture and technology. Through his academic, policy, advisory, and advocacy work, Professor Liang has profoundly shaped the field of copyright law in India.

Professor Liang has taught, and been a research scholar at several academic institutions including Yale University, Columbia University, Michigan University, and National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (NLSIU). He has written widely on intellectual property, media laws, and has also served as a board member of the International Creative Commons. He is a co-founder of two prominent digital archives pad.ma and indiancine.ma.

In 2017, Professor Liang received the Infosys Prize for Social Sciences in recognition of his creative scholarship on law and society. He has also been a recipient of the New India Foundation fellowship (2009). Professor Liang has co-authored Sex, Laws and Videotape: The Public is Watching (with Mayur Suresh and Namita Avriti Malhotra), published by Public Service Broadcasting Trust, and has authored Guide to Open Content Licenses, published by the Piet Zwart Institute in 2004.

Professor Liang holds B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) degrees from NLSIU. He also holds an LL.M. degree from the University of Warwick where he was a Chevening scholar and “Best Outgoing Student”. He obtained his doctorate in Cinema Studies from the School of Arts and Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2017.