Digital Copyright Pbk. Ed Edition

by Jessica Litman (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1591024200

ISBN-10: 159102420X

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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 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.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Professor Litman's work stands out as well-researched, doctrinally solid, and always piercingly well-written."
JANE GINSBURG
Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property
Columbia University

"Litman's work is distinctive in several respects: in her informed historical perspective on copyright law and its legislative policy; her remarkable ability to translate complicated copyright concepts and their implications into plain English; her willingness to study, understand, and take seriously what ordinary people think copyright law means; and her creativity in formulating alternatives to the copyright quagmire."
PAMELA SAMUELSON
Professor of Law and Information Management
Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
University of California, Berkeley

About the Author

Jessica Litman (Ann Arbor, MI) is professor of law at Wayne State University and a widely recognized expert on copyright law.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prometheus Books; Pbk. Ed edition (July 5, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 216 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159102420X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1591024200
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.36 x 0.48 x 8.32 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,445,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #557 in Copyright Law
- #761 in Computer & Internet Law
- #26,508 in Web Development & Design

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Martin A. Miller

Eye opening; everyone should read this book

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2006

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Professor Litman tackles the dense and often counterintuitive basis of copyright law and delivers an easy to understand explanation of what copyright law is, what it attempts to accomplish, why it was deemed necessary, and how it came to be that copyright owners (e.g., the RIAA) are suing your teenage sons and daughters.

Criticisms of this book in previous reviews cite the fact that the book includes a number of journal articles cobbled together. That's fine with me - the quality of these articles are such that I don't mind the occasional restating of points made in a previous chapter - these are all issues that bear repeating! I understand that the prose is necessarily awkward at times - hey! this is copyright law, it's s'posed to be opaque!

The salient issues (for me) from this book are the following:

1. Copyright law is designed, developed and negotiated by those who have the biggest stake in making the most money.

2. The US Congress, our representative to insure that we, the public, are not shafted by unfair, restrictive copyright laws, have betrayed our trust. They are swayed by lobbyists, large campaign contributions, and rubber stamp whatever the copyright owners want. The consumer's voice (and to a great extent, the voice of emerging technologies as well!) is silent.

3. It's no longer about copying, it's about consuming.

4. The Internet (and the digital technology that accompanies it) provides copyright owners the ability to monitor, meter, enforce and control access. Fair use is (or will be) a thing of the past; "fair use" was grudgingly accepted by copyright owners mainly because preventing copying for "personal use" was deemed "unenforceable". No longer.

We as individual consumers must make our voices heard. Read this book - educate yourself.

4 people found this helpful

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Thirdman

Good information, feels dated in approach

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2012

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If you need this information, it will satisfy you. Not particularly fun to read about (maybe because it feels slightly old or behind the times), but probably helped lay the foundation for current thoughts on copyright. I prefer Pirate's Dilemma or Lawrence Lessig (Code, Remix) instead.

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angelcorpuschristi

Interesting but not helpful

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2001

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This is a well-written and interesting history of copyright as it applies to digital works. But, it does not, as the title suggests, tell you much about protecting digital property. The material is informative and has the ring of a very long law review article (or perhaps more likely, a collection of law review articles). Recommended for scholars and curious bystanders of the digital copyright wars but not recommended for those actually trying to protect work on the Net or formulate a policy for exploiting works.

17 people found this helpful

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Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2001

Litman's timely book, coming two years after the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) radically altered the landscape of copyright law, confronts the current issues we face involving Napster and other file sharing programs, pay-per-use efforts in the software and entertainment industries, and the seemingly arcane and counterintuitive nature of copyright law itself. Writen for the layman, it's easily understandable and a breezy, deeply interesting read for people concerned about how their rights to use the things they buy have changed and may change further in the future.
Part polemic against the encroaching magnification of corporate over individual rights to works, part history of the development of copyright law in the US, Litman's main points as a law professor specializing in copyright law involve the historical lack of representation of individual consumers' rights in the marketplace. Congress historically has simply allowed "interested parties" to collaborate on agreements that Congress then enacted into law. Unfortunately, and as Litman shows again and again, businesses and consumers not at the bargaining table got the short shrift and nascent new industries based on revolutionary technologies (such as piano rolls, movies, etc) were hindered in their development. Those involved in the copyright law negotiations (libraries, unions, and major existing industries and trade groups) tended to get limited exceptions, deals, and special exemptions, while our representatives in Congress have traditionally simply allowed them their way.
Litman then discusses 1998's DMCA and how it, to a degree previously unseen in copyright law, exposes consumers to the will of the producers of works and the vagarities of copyright law, and creates the possibility of a world where one is virtually unable to use their own computer without the permission of the company that owns the operating system and can be forced to pay every time they open a program. Before the microchip, controlling how someone used a product once they bought it was an impossibility and once a person purchased an item they had defined usage, copying, and sharing rights. Now however software companies, movie studios, and the recording industry are examing and testing technologies that allow them to parcel out "use" rights that limit how many times you can watch a movie you've bought, play a game you've purchased, or listen to a song you've already paid your money for, and it's all now legal under the DMCA.
Her cogent explanations of the incoherencies and vagueness of the DMCA itself were able to show me in easy to understand language the problems with the law and the need for a reform of copyright that matches the public perception of their rights to use the things they buy to learn and develop themselves and yet retains the incentive for creation and development of new works by individuals and industries.

20 people found this helpful

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AndreaA

Foundation for the copyright quagmire

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2004

I found this book to be an easy read over the weekend and very comprehensible, even to the layperson who does not have a legal background yet who might have interest.
The bottom line is that copyright law and the meshing of digitization is not black and white yet is gray and murky. Until case law and the creatives reach some kind of a negotiation or a consensus, it will continue to be murky.
And, in our society we may have to agree to disagree with certain elements.
One of the strongest points brought out in this book was that if people don't believe in the law, they will not uphold it and there is not a lot that the government can do. I'm certainly not condoning illegal behavior yet there is a strong point to be made.
Our law was supposed to be written as one that would flex with the times yet we've found that digitization challenges the perceptions behind the laws that were set early and into the mid 1900's.
In conclusion, there is no conclusion and the story is still being written yet this book provides an excellent historical context for why copyright is as sensitive and muddy as it is and provides a good look at the dichotomies between the copyright exclusive owners and users.

5 people found this helpful

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ema

Nuovo ma senza novità

Reviewed in Italy on September 4, 2020

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Il problema è che, soprattutto riguardo alla protezione del software, non ci sono grandi novità di rilievo. Peggio ancora se si considera l'inattuabile Decreto Europeo del 17 marzo 2019 che non risolve il problema per i contenuti dell'informazione.

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Digital Copyright Pbk. Ed Edition

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