Digital CopyrightIn 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 publicized 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. |
Contents
Acknowledgments 9 | 9 |
The Art of Making Copyright Laws | 22 |
Copyright and Compromise | 35 |
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1st sess 2d sess amendments ASCAP authors bargain broadcast Bruce Lehman cable circumvention Commerce Committee commercial compulsory license conferences Cong Congress consumer electronics content owners copyright infringement copyright law copyright lawyers Copyright Office copyright owners copyright protection copyright revision copyright rules copyright statute current copyright DeCSS Digital Millennium Copyright distribution DMCA draft enacted exclusive rights exemption fair Grokster Hearings on H.R. House Committee iCraveTV individual Information Infrastructure insisted Intellectual Property interests Internet service providers Jessica Litman Judiciary Committee Law Review Lehman Working Group liability libraries manufacturers Millennium Copyright Act motion picture industry MP3 files MP3.com Napster negotiations Pamela Samuelson Patents performing rights permit piano roll piracy players privilege prohibit public performance radio random-access memory record companies recording industry representatives reproduction sale doctrine Senate statutory studios subscribers technological protection television tion transmissions treaty users White Paper