David R. Hansen

I’m an attorney and librarian who helps people preserve, access, and share information. I provide legal strategy for:

I advise on copyright, licensing, publishing contracts, fair use, and the intersection of research and publishing ethics and the law. I have also worked with organizations on legal quesitons related to acquisition and provenance or special collections. Over the last few years I have worked with authors, publishers, libraries and technology companies to navigate legal questions raised by artificial intelligence — including the use of copyrighted works in training data, rights in outputs, and responsible approaches to open access and innovation.

Background

Headshot of David R. Hansen, attorney and librarian I'm the Executive Director of Authors Alliance, a nonprofit that supports authors who want to benefit the public by sharing their works broadly. I frequently write about copyright, publishing, and technology for Authors Alliance’s blog. Previously, I was Duke University's Associate University Librarian for Research, Collections and Scholarly Communications and Lead for Copyright and Information Policy. I was also a law librarian and Clinical Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill, where I still occasionally adjunct teach. Before that, I was part of a project at UC Berkeley School of Law, the Digital Library Copyright Project, supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

I hold law and library degrees from UNC Chapel Hill and I’m licensed to practice in North Carolina. My wife Janice and I live just outside Chapel Hill on our farm with our five kids.