Promises to Keep

by Fisher, William W., III

• ISBN13: 9780804750134
• ISBN10: 0804750130
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-15
• Publisher: Stanford Law & Politics

Summary

During the past fifteen years, changes in technology have generated an extraordinary array of new ways in which music and movies can be produced and distributed. Both the creators and the consumers of entertainment products stand to benefit enormously from the new systems. Sadly, we have failed thus far to avail ourselves of these opportunities. Instead, much energy has been devoted to interpreting or changing legal rules in hopes of defending older business models against the threats posed by the new technologies. These efforts to plug the multiplying holes in the legal dikes are failing and the entertainment industry has fallen into crisis. This provocative book chronicles how we got into this mess and presents three alternative proposalseach involving a combination of legal reforms and new business modelsfor how we could get out of it.

Author Biography

William W. Fisher III is the Hale and Dorr Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
1 The Promise of the New Technology	11	(27)
2 The Baseline: Entertainment Law and Practice in 1990	38	(44)
3 What Went Awry	82	(52)
4 Taking Property Rights Seriously	134	(39)
5 Online Entertainment as a Regulated Industry	173	(26)
6 An Alternative Compensation System	199	(60)
Appendix: Where Does the Money Go?	259	(6)
Notes	265	(56)
Index	321