Copyright and the challenge of the new
By: editors, Brad Sherman, Leanne Wiseman
Series: Information law series -- vol. 25; Information law series -- 25.
Publisher: Kluwer Law International; Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America by Aspen Publishers
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands; Frederick, MD
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
ISBN-13: 9789041136695
Subjects: Copyright
Description: "Copyright is not, as is often thought, something that is periodically extended to cover a new field or medium; rather, copyright redefines itself whenever its efficacy is challenged. While many factors have contributed to this process, one of the most consistent has been the challenges created by new technologies. The contributing authors build upon this insight to show that copyright law is, and has always been, a creature of technology. Each chapter focuses on a specific technology or group of technologies - photography, telegraphy, the phonogram, radio, film, the photocopier, the tape player, television, and computer programs - emphasizing the changes that each technology instigated and the challenges and opportunities it created. Perhaps the most profound insight of this extraordinary book is the authors' claim - ably supported in a series of intriguing chapters - that the way the law responds and reacts to new technologies is always mediated by the political, social, economic, and cultural environment in which the interaction occurs. For example, these chapters describe and explain how: statutory schemes of remuneration arose from failures to effectively police new forms of piracy; persistent litigation and lobbying by copyright owners forces legislatures and courts to devise new laws; content (e.g., sporting events) generates new rules of access to broadcasts; and 'fair copying' (e.g., by libraries) is the necessary exception that proves the rule. As well as providing insights into the ways that copyright law interacted with old technologies when they were new, the book also offers important insights into problems and issues currently confronting copyright law and policy such as the appropriate scope of copyright and the relation between copyright and the public interest"--P. [4] of cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Copyright : when old technologies were new / Brad Sherman and Leanne Wiseman; title: 'The world daguerreotyped : what a spectacle!' : copyright law, photography and the economic mission of empire / Kathy Bowrey; title: The electric telegraph and the struggle over copyright in news in Australia, Great Britain and India / Lionel Bently; title: The phonogram : a tale of vested interests and seized opportunities / Johnson Okpaluba; title: Radio : early battles over the public performance right / Graeme Austin; title: How did film become property? : copyright and the early American film industry / Oren Bracha; title: The story of the tape recorder and the history of copyright levies / P. Bernt Hugenholtz; title: Making copies : photocopying and copyright / Leanne Wiseman; title: Public ownership of private spectacles : copyright and television / Brad Sherman; title: A square peg in a round hole? : copyright protection for computer programs / Pamela Samuelson