James Grimmelmann studies how laws regulating software affect freedom, wealth, and power. As a lawyer and technologist, he helps these two groups understand each other by writing about copyright and digitization, the regulation of search engines, privacy on social networks, and other topics in computer and Internet law.

He is the author of the casebook Internet Law: Cases and Problems, now in its fifth edition, and of over forty scholarly articles and essays. He has written for Slate, Salon, Wired, Ars Technica, and Publishers Weekly. He is also a regular source of expert commentary for major news media including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and All Things Considered. He and his students created the Public Index website to inform the public about the Google Books settlement.