The GitHub Developer Rights FellowshipThe GitHub Developer Rights Fellowship, part of GitHub’s Developer Defense Fund, provides independent legal assistance for individual software developers in appropriate cases and support research on and education and advocacy for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and other legal issues, with the goal of shaping a developer-friendly legal landscape. The two-year clinical fellowship is housed within SLS’s dynamic Juelsgaard Intellectual Property & Innovation Clinic under the direction of Professor Phillip R. Malone.Phil Malone, Professor of Law and Director, Juelsgaard Intellectual Property and Innovation Clinic“We’re excited to continue to enhance the Juelsgaard Clinic’s mission of informing and empowering open-source developers and the important work they do,” said Malone. “GitHub’s generous support for this fellowship helps ensure fair and open software development under the law and will defend the rights of a community whose creativity and innovations benefit us all.”Helping to Define the Tech Legal LandscapeOne of the Juelsgaard Clinic’s core goals is to help shape intellectual property law and regulatory policies to promote increased innovation and creativity in technology by advocating on the behalf of innovators, developers, entrepreneurs, and consumers. The GitHub Developer Rights Fellow will be an integral part of this core mission, helping to train law students and represent clients in a variety of significant litigation, client counseling, and policy advocacy matters.GitHub Developer Rights FellowThe Fellow will work primarily to help handle and expand the Clinic’s caseload that involves software copyright issues, particularly Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Section 1201 and 512 matters, fair use cases, and open-source software development and licensing, and to provide independent legal representation for developers in appropriate cases to assert their rights, including reviewing and handling DMCA notices for developers from across the development ecosystem. Understanding and navigating the DMCA and takedowns is often complicated and difficult for open-source developers, and most developers don’t have the resources to push back against unwarranted takedown notices. The result is that developers often feel that they have no choice but to remove access to valuable code even where the legal claim behind a takedown notice is questionable or unfounded.In addition to the DMCA, the Fellow will work with students and Professor Malone to counsel developers to understand their rights under Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other laws as well as to navigate increasingly complex issues of AI accountability, safety and regulation. The Fellow also will coordinate research on and advocacy for sound application of the DMCA, copyright law, and other legal issues important for software developers and innovation. The Clinic’s activities, strengthened by the work of the Fellow, will encourage a developer-friendly legal landscape and balance the scales in areas of the law that are critical for the work of open-source developers.The expected pay range for this position is $64,480 -$78,000 per annum. Stanford University provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, and external market pay for comparable jobs.*Note: The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classification and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.Stanford Law School seeks to hire the best talent and to promote a safe and secure environment for all members of the university community and its property. To that end, new staff hires must successfully pass a background check prior to starting work at Stanford University.Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires an accommodation to perform essential functions of the job.Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.