Copyright is under siege. From file sharing to vast library
scanning projects, new technologies, actors, and attitudes toward intellectual
property threaten the value of creative work. However, while digital media and
the Internet have made making and sharing perfect copies of original works
almost effortless, debates about protecting authors' rights are nothing new. In
this sweeping account of the evolution of copyright law since the
mid-nineteenth century, Monika Dommann explores how radical media changes―from
sheet music and phonographs to photocopiers and networked information
systems―have challenged and transformed legal and cultural concept of authors'
rights.
Dommann provides a critical transatlantic perspective on developments
in copyright law and mechanical reproduction of words and music, charting how
artists, media companies, and lawmakers in the United States and western Europe
approached the complex tangle of technological innovation, intellectual
property, and consumer interests. From the seemingly innocuous music box,
invented around 1800, to BASF's magnetic tapes and Xerox machines, she
demonstrates how copyright has been continuously destabilized by emerging
technologies, requiring new legal norms to regulate commercial and private
copying practices. Without minimizing digital media's radical disruption to
notions of intellectual property, Dommann uncovers the deep historical roots of
the conflict between copyright and media―a story that can inform present-day
debates over the legal protection of authorship.
- Publisher's Description
