Customer Reviews

Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectural Property in the Information Age

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If you are a copyright "nerd" (as I am) this book is a great addition to your collection. This book has some wonderful essays on the current issues facing the copyright world. I couldn't put it down, all of the essays are very thought provoking and well written. If you like books written by Lessig, Litman, and Siva, you will love this book.

I guess it was to be expected though. It is just a bunch of transcripts of speechs given about copyright from both sides.

This book provides a good discussion of digital copyright issues that were fresh (some would say raw) back in 2001 when the book was published. About half of the essays focus on the Digital Millienium Copyright Act, and that law's anti-technology circumvention measures. I'd like to see something new from the authors on the subject, although in the digital age a blog would be more useful and current than a book.

I read this book for a law course on current copyright law issues. The book is based off of a conference sponsored by the Cato Institute, so it has a libertarian slant. The first section on copyright theory is helpful if you aren't familiar with it, but I found that the arguments were basically the same ones I read in my copyright casebook. A large chunk of the book talks about the DMCA and in particular its anti-circumvention provision, with most of the writers complaining against it. The points they make can get repetitive, and I found myself skimming them after a while. I was disappointed that the writers weren't more creative about their topics; there are certainly other issues going on out there. There are a few chapters towards the end that talk about patents, and since I know nothing about patents and didn't get the book to learn about them I didn't bother with those chapters at all.