Signed Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars by William Patry
Signed The Public Domain by James Boyle
Signed Against Intellectual Monopoly by David Levine & Michele Boldrin
Signed The Gridlock Economy by Michael Heller
Signed Approaching Infinity by Mike Masnick
Techdirt Crystal Ball
"Techdirt Insider" Badge on your Profile
*Some features require a Techdirt user account. Please sign in so that we may properly associate your purchase with your user account. If you do not have an account, you can register, here.
Patry, long established as one of the foremost experts on copyright law has written an outstanding text that discusses how copyright law has been twisted and abused by corporate interests who don’t use it for its intended purpose (to promote the progress of creative works) but as a tool to prop up an outdated business model. On top of this, he explores the misleading and inflammatory language used by those seeking to abuse copyright law in this manner. Highly engaging and a must read for anyone who’s worried about the state of copyright today.
Law professor James Boyle has been one of the foremost critics of the undue expansion of copyright law over the years, fighting against things like the DMCA and the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act. Over the years, he’s noticed a troubling trend among some to question why the public domain is even needed — so he wrote an entire book to explain why. It’s filled with story after story that highlights both the importance of the public domain and how overly aggressive copyright laws have held back the public domain and the creativity that it previously allowed. As a highlight, don’t miss the incredible chapter on the birth of soul music by Ray Charles. If today’s copyright regime had been in force at the time, we might not have had soul music at all. Think of all the great music we may be missing today thanks to current copyright laws.
Levine and Boldrin are two well-known economists who began investigating the impacts of intellectual property, and were eventually quite disturbed by what they found. That is, they could find no evidence that either copyrights or patents actually achieved their stated intention of "promoting the progress." Instead, they found a lot of evidence that the opposite occurred — and that copyright and patent law served to hinder the progress and slow down its pace. Chock full of examples and citations to important studies, this book is a must read for anyone trying to understand the state of today’s intellectual property law and how closely it lives up to its stated purpose.
An excellent addition to the literature on property law and the economics of property. Heller recognized what he refers to as "the tragedy of the anti-commons" when too many property rights get in the way of the efficient allocation of resources, and notes how this has come into play on things like patents and broadcast spectrum. If you’re trying to understand the economics of intellectual property, especially if you’re a strong believer in property rights (as we are) this is an excellent book to understand where property rights can go too far.
Adapted from a series of posts on Techdirt about the economics of abundance and how to embrace it, this short book is a useful read for anyone struggling to understand digital business models today. Getting beyond the legal issues or economic studies, Mike tries to explain what you can do today to embrace the digital reality and use it to your advantage, rather than worrying about the impact of things like "piracy."
