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.
Digital Copyright: Protecting Intellectual Property on the Internet 1st Edition
by
Jessica Litman
(Author)
| Jessica Litman (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
ISBN-13: 978-1573928892
ISBN-10: 1573928895
Why is ISBN important? ISBN
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Add to book club
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Buy new:
$17.58
More Buying Choices
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.
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.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Litman (law, Wayne State Univ.) offers a surprisingly readable, even entertaining dissection of 1998's Digital Millennium laws passed throughout the 20th century. Central to her exegesis is a critique of the method of drafting legislation, begun just about 100 years ago, that lets the interested parties negotiate among themselves and submit to legislators proposed amendments and revisions. She includes libraries as parties with special interests in this system and notes that the most important group consumers is inevitably not represented. And she has special disdain for her fellow Chapters jump from a historical investigation of legislative practice, to comparison of several recent technological challenges to copyright, to an explanation of how shifts in the understanding of underlying principle have shaped the law. In the end, Litman proposes a vastly simplified system but admits that "a wholesale reconceptualization of copyright law seems unlikely-. There are not many Don Quixotes in Washington." Recommended for all types of libraries. Eric Bryant, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Readers with an interest in doing business on the Internet, or in the specific issue of copyright, should not be without this book. The author, a recognized expert in copyright law, demonstrates how the World Wide Web has the potential to restructure copyright laws in the U.S. It's a tricky, complicated issue in which questions of control versus access are paramount. How, for instance, do you regulate the use of a copyrighted work when anyone who logs onto the Net can access it for free? Do you try to charge each computer user a royalty? To put all this in its proper context, Litman provides a capsule history of U.S. copyright law, showing how every development in the technology of publishing has brought further refinement and further complications to the law. At the center of the book is a single question: Do the new statutes now being proposed by copyright holders make sense? The book is quite technical in places, but it's also clearly written and sensibly argued. A timely and very useful resource. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"...a very common-sense approach to understanding copyright law and history ... perfect for non-experts..." -- What You Need to Know About
"...enlightening and well-argued..." -- Tech Directions
"...intriguing, provocative, thought-provoking...suitable for general interest readers and intellectual property specialists alike." -- The Colorado Lawyer, November 2001
"Litman's argument that copyright laws are artificially stacked against emerging technologies is a persuasive one." -- Inside Magazine, March 6, 2001
"Professor Jessica Litman...is known in the copyright community as a scholar on the fringe...brilliant and challenging..." -- New York Law Journal, July 6, 2001
"anyone interested in copyright, and anyone who wishes to defend and strengthen it, should pay careful attention to [these] arguments." -- Columbia-VLA Journal of Law & the Arts
"delivers a wealth of information, both historical and legal...in language that is easy to follow..." -- College & Research Libraries
"easy to follow...designed like a textbook for copyright law, and librarians will benefit from the information found here." -- College and Research Libraries, November 2001
"informative, intelligent, and even amusing...provides a clear picture of why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act matters..." -- Information Technology and Libraries, December 2001
"...enlightening and well-argued..." -- Tech Directions
"...intriguing, provocative, thought-provoking...suitable for general interest readers and intellectual property specialists alike." -- The Colorado Lawyer, November 2001
"Litman's argument that copyright laws are artificially stacked against emerging technologies is a persuasive one." -- Inside Magazine, March 6, 2001
"Professor Jessica Litman...is known in the copyright community as a scholar on the fringe...brilliant and challenging..." -- New York Law Journal, July 6, 2001
"anyone interested in copyright, and anyone who wishes to defend and strengthen it, should pay careful attention to [these] arguments." -- Columbia-VLA Journal of Law & the Arts
"delivers a wealth of information, both historical and legal...in language that is easy to follow..." -- College & Research Libraries
"easy to follow...designed like a textbook for copyright law, and librarians will benefit from the information found here." -- College and Research Libraries, November 2001
"informative, intelligent, and even amusing...provides a clear picture of why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act matters..." -- Information Technology and Libraries, December 2001
From the Publisher
"DIGITAL COPYRIGHT is a short, readable, accurate, and insightful study of copyright legislation and the changes required in our thinking about copyright in the digital age. It should be required reading for legislators and their staffers, as well as federal judges, who must implement copyright policy in concrete cases and who desperately need an understandable framework for making their decisions. It is also an excellent book for both specialist and general lawyers and, indeed, members of the public who want to understand the usually impenetrable and always arcane world of copyright law." -- Jurimetrics (Journal of Law, Science and Technology), Fall 2001
Product details
- Publisher : Prometheus Books; 1st edition (January 1, 2001)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 208 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1573928895
- ISBN-13 : 978-1573928892
- Item Weight : 1.05 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,901,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #372 in Copyright Law
- #480 in Computer & Internet Law
- #641 in Science & Technology Law (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
13 global ratings
How customer reviews and ratings work
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 27, 2006
4 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 17, 2001
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
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 29, 2012
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.
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.
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
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 26, 2012
Along with Lawrence Lessig, Wendy J. Gordon and Siva Vadyanathan, Jessica Litman was one of the first wave of copyright scholars Who Get It. Her observations of copyright as a specific solution to a specific problem that no longer exists (or no longer exists in the same form) should be crucial to anyone considering long-term policy on this subject.
One person found this helpful
Report abuse
Top reviews from other countries
ema
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nuovo ma senza novità
Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on September 4, 2020
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.




