Digital Copyright: Protecting Intellectual Property on the Internet

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.


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


New York Law Journal, July 6, 2001
"Professor Jessica Litman...is known in the copyright community as a scholar on the fringe...brilliant and challenging..."


Inside Magazine, March 6, 2001
"Litman's argument that copyright laws are artificially stacked against emerging technologies is a persuasive one."


The Colorado Lawyer, November 2001
"...intriguing, provocative, thought-provoking...suitable for general interest readers and intellectual property specialists alike."


College and Research Libraries, November 2001
"easy to follow...designed like a textbook for copyright law, and librarians will benefit from the information found here."


Information Technology and Libraries, December 2001
"informative, intelligent, and even amusing...provides a clear picture of why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act matters..."


Tech Directions
"...enlightening and well-argued..."


Columbia-VLA Journal of Law & the Arts
"anyone interested in copyright, and anyone who wishes to defend and strengthen it, should pay careful attention to [these] arguments."


College & Research Libraries
"delivers a wealth of information, both historical and legal...in language that is easy to follow..."


What You Need to Know About
"...a very common-sense approach to understanding copyright law and history ... perfect for non-experts..."


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


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In 1998 copyright lobbyists persuaded Congress to enact laws expanding copyright owners' control over private uses of works, resulting in many notable legal battles - Napster being the latest. In Digital Copyright, law professor Litman questions whether copyright laws make sense, and how they are enforced. She argues for reforms which reflect how individuals use materials. An intriguing, relevant examination of how copyright applies to the modern online world.


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