Fred von Lohmann has won ALA's L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) and its Copyright Advisory Subcommittee have named Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) specializing in intellectual property matters, this year’s winner of the L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award.
The annual award recognizes contributions of an individual or group that pursues and supports the Constitutional purpose of the U.S. Copyright Law, fair use and the public domain. The award is named after L. Ray Patterson, a key legal figure who explained and justified the importance of the public domain and fair use. Fair use is a key exception of the copyright law that allows for the use of a copyright without prior authorization and helps to promote learning, new creativity, scholarship and criticism.
In his role at EFF, von Lohmann has represented programmers, technology innovators, and individuals in a variety of copyright and trademark litigation, including MGM v. Grokster, decided by the Supreme Court in 2005. He is also involved in EFF’s efforts to educate policy-makers regarding the proper balance between intellectual property protection and the public interest in fair use, free expression, and innovation. . . .
An overview of von Lohmann’s work is available on EFF's Web site.