Digital Copyright

by Litman, Jessica

• ISBN13: 9781573928892
• ISBN10: 1573928895
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Prometheus Books

Summary

In 1998, copyright lobbyists succeeded in persuading Congress to enact laws greatly expanding copyright owners' control over individuals' private uses of their works. The efforts to enforce these new rights have resulted in highly publicised legal battles between established media, and new upstarts. In this enlightening and well-argued book, law professor Jessica Litman questions whether copyright laws crafted by lawyers and their lobbyists really make sense for the vast majority of us. Should every interaction between ordinary consumers and copyright-protected works be restricted by law? Is it practical to enforce such laws, or expect consumers to obey them? What are the effects of such laws on the exchange of information in a free society? Litman's critique exposes the 1998 copyright law as an incoherent patchwork. She argues for reforms that reflect common sense and the way people actually behave in their daily digital interactions. This paperback edition includes an afterword that comments on recent developments, such as the end of the Napster story, the rise of peer-to-peer file sharing, the escalation of a full-fledged copyright war, the filing of lawsuits against thousands of individuals, and the June 2005 Supreme Court decision in the Grokster case.

Author Biography

Jessica Litman is professor of law at Wayne State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	9	(11)
Introduction	11	(4)
Copyright Basics	15	(7)
The Art of Making Copyright Laws	22	(13)
Copyright and Compromise	35	(35)
A Thought Experiment	70	(7)
Choosing Metaphors	77	(12)
Copyright Lawyers Set Out to Colonize Cyberspace	89	(12)
Creation and Incentives	101	(10)
``Just Say Yes to Licensing!''	111	(11)
The Bargaining Table	122	(29)
The Copyright Wars	151	(15)
Copyright Law in the Digital Millennium	166	(5)
Revising Copyright Law for the Information Age	171	(21)
The Copyright Bargain	192	(5)
Glossay	197	(8)
Index	205