Policy Issues
The past twenty years have seen a great debate about copyright law. The catalyst was the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the term of existing copyrights for twenty additional years. This law was found to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 in Eldred v. Ashcroft. Lawrence Lessig, then a law professor at Stanford, wrote an influential book, Free Culture, that was critical of the lengthening of copyright terms and the expansion of copyright owners' rights. Lessig was one of a number of critics of American copyright law. On the other side is the novelist Mark Helprin, who in 2007 wrote an op-ed for The New York Times calling for authors to have a perpetual copyright to their works. The criticism he received prompted him to write Digital Barbarism, expanding on his Times piece to argue for increased copyright protection for authors. Below are some of many books discussing the implications of the copyright laws.
Further Reading
Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and The Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity by Call Number: Business/SPEA Library KF2979 .L47 2004ISBN: 1594200068Publication Date: 2004-03-30Copies also in the Maurer Law Library and the Cook Music Library.
The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World by Call Number: Wells Library East Tower 8th Floor K1401 .L47 2001ISBN: 0375505784Publication Date: 2001-10-30
Democracy of Sound: music piracy and the remaking of American copyright in the twentieth century by Call Number: Cook Music Library KF3035 .C86 2013ISBN: 9780199858224Publication Date: 2013-04-05
Wired Shut: copyright and the shape of digital culture by Call Number: Maurer Law Library K1447.15 .G55 2007ISBN: 9780262072823Publication Date: 2007-06-30
Pirates of the Digital Millennium: how the intellectual property wars damage our personal freedoms, our jobs, and the world economy by Call Number: Mauruer Law Library K1485 .G36 2005ISBN: 0131463152Publication Date: 2004-09-20
Copyright and Economic Theory by Call Number: Maurer Law Library K1420.5 .W38 2000ISBN: 1840643129Publication Date: 2000-01-01
The Empire of Mind: digital piracy and the anti-capitalist movement by Call Number: Wells Library East Tower 7th Floor HM861 .S77 2005ISBN: 0802038980Publication Date: 2005-09-17
The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Spurs Innovation by Call Number: Maurer Law Library KF3080 .R38 2012ISBN: 9780195399783Publication Date: 2012-09-17
Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity by Call Number: Wells Library East Tower 10th Floor Z642 .V35 2001ISBN: 0814788068Publication Date: 2001-08-01
