Siva Vaidhyanathan: Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (2001)

Copyright reflects far more than economic interests. Embedded within conflicts over royalties and infringement are cultural values—about race, class, access, ownership, free speech, and democracy—which influence how rights are determined and enforced. Questions of legitimacy—of what constitutes “intellectual property” or “fair use,” and of how to locate a precise moment of cultural creation—have become enormously complicated in recent years, as advances in technology have exponentially increased the speed of cultural reproduction and dissemination.

In Copyrights and Copywrongs, Siva Vaidhyanathan tracks the history of American copyright law through the 20th century, from Mark Twain’s vehement exhortations for “thick” copyright protection, to recent lawsuits regarding sampling in rap music and the “digital moment,” exemplified by the rise of Napster and MP3 technology. He argues persuasively that in its current punitive, highly restrictive form, American copyright law hinders cultural production, thereby contributing to the poverty of civic culture.

In addition to choking cultural expression, recent copyright law, Vaidhyanathan argues, effectively sanctions biases against cultural traditions which differ from the Anglo-European model. In African-based cultures, borrowing from and building upon earlier cultural expressions is not considered a legal trespass, but a tribute. Rap and hip hop artists who practice such “borrowing” by sampling and mixing, however, have been sued for copyright violation and forced to pay substantial monetary damages. Similarly, the oral transmission of culture, which has a centuries-old tradition within African American culture, is complicated by current copyright laws. How, for example, can ownership of music, lyrics, or stories which have been passed down through generations be determined? Upon close examination, strict legal guidelines prove insensitive to the diverse forms of cultural expression prevalent in the United States, and reveal much about the racialized cultural values which permeate our system of laws. Ultimately, copyright is a necessary policy that should balance public and private interests but the recent rise of “intellectual property” as a concept have overthrown that balance. Copyright, Vaidhyanathan asserts, is policy, not property.

Bringing to light the republican principles behind original copyright laws as well as present-day imbalances and future possibilities for freer expression and artistic equity, this volume takes important strides towards unraveling the complex web of culture, law, race, and technology in today’s global marketplace.

Publisher New York University Press, 2001
ISBN 0-8147-8806-8
Length 256 pages

Keywords and phrases
Mark Twain, Napster, Pac-man, U.S. Supreme Court, D. W. Griffith, African American, Ben-Hur, Led Zeppelin, Marx Brothers, Statute of Anne, Willie Dixon, rhythm and blues, Groucho Marx, Martha Graham, DMCA, U.S. Congress, Schoolly D, intellectual property, rap music, He’s So Fine

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Media Reform: Democratizing the Media, Democratizing the State (2002)

Media Reform examines a complex process: the reform of media and its role promoting democratic practices. Using examples of media from a range of countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa, Media Reform considers the social and cultural implications of a free and independent media.

Editors Monroe Edwin Price, Beata Rozumilowicz, Stefaan G. Verhulst
Publisher Routledge, 2002
ISBN 041524353X, 9780415243537
Length 283 pages

Keywords and phrases
Uzbekistan, mass media, Uruguay, Ukraine, demonopolization, JRTV, Montevideo, Ukrainian, Dziennik Ustaw, Sfor, Kampala, media in Poland, Dayton Accords, TVRI, Uzbek, Tashkent, journalists, Suharto, Al-Arab al-Yawm, Jakarta

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Kembrew McLeod: Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property (2007)

Freedom of Expression® covers the ways in which intellectual property laws have been used to privatize all forms of expression—from guitar riffs and Donald Trump’s “you’re fired” gesture to human genes and public space—and in the process stifle creative expression. Kembrew McLeod challenges the blind embrace of privatization as it clashes against our right to free speech and shared resources.

This book’s documentary companion will be available through Media Education Foundation.

Table of Contents
Foreword: An Ideal Lawyer-Citizen (by Lawrence Lessig)
Introduction
1. This Gene Is Your Gene: Fencing Off the Folk and Genetic Commons
2. Copyright Criminals: This Is a Sampling Sport
3. Illegal Art: When Art Gets in Trouble with the Law, Art Gives the Law Trouble Back
4. Culture, Inc.: Our Hyper-Referential, Branded Culture
5. Our Privatized World: Selling Off the Public Square, Culture, Education, Our Democracy, and Everything Else
6. The Digital Future: And the Analog Past
Afterword: Freedom of Expression®
Epilogue: The Day I Killed Freedom of Expression

Publisher University of Minnesota Press, 2007
ISBN 0816650314, 9780816650316
Length 379 pages

The PDF Version of the book is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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