Current Developments In Copyright Law

"The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States of America. The Code was first published in 1926, and a new edition of the code has been published every six years since 1934. The 2012 edition of the Code incorporates laws enacted through the One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, the last of which was signed by the President on January 15, 2013. It does not include laws of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, enacted between January 2, 2013, the date it convened, and January 15, 2013. By statutory authority this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 2012 ed." As adopted in 1926, the Code established prima facie the general and permanent laws of the United States. The underlying statutes reprinted in the Code remained in effect and controlled over the Code in case of any discrepancy. In 1947, Congress began enacting individual titles of the Code into positive law. When a title is enacted into positive law, the underlying statutes are repealed and the title then becomes legal evidence of the law. Currently, 26 of the 51 titles in the Code have been so enacted. These are identified in the table of titles near the beginning of each volume. The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives continues to prepare legislation pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b to enact the remainder of the Code, on a title-by-title basis, into positive law. The 2012 edition of the Code was prepared and published under the supervision of Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the contributions by all who helped in this work, particularly the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and the Government Printing Office"--Preface.

Get the latest information on new developments in copyright law! This timely volume sheds light on the important legal issues that influence the scholarly publishing world. The often-confusing field of publishing law--including copyright, licensing, liability, electronic publishing, and taxation--is going through an unprecedented upheaval as we move into the twenty-first century. Publishing and the Law: Current Legal Issues offers clear, current explanations of the implications of recent laws and technologies and predicts what further changes to expect. Featuring legal, business, and publishing experts, Publishing and the Law discusses the wide-ranging implications of the decline of fair use, the rise of software licensing, the Communications Decency Act, and such landmark legal cases as LaMacchia, Feist, and Matthew Bender. Questions of ownership, fair use, and licensing--historically a problem for authors such as Twain and Dickens--have become exacerbated by the fact that information is no longer static, but rather fluid and transportable. Publishing and the Law addresses the vital questions of interest to librarians, publishers, and scholars, including: How will changing technologies affect the legal status of libraries, universities, authors, and publishers? What are the latest trends in liability for authors and publishers? How does anti-trust law affect library budgets? Why is copyright giving way to licensing, and what does that mean for libraries? How has the definition of fair use changed? Do attempts to censor the Internet abrogate First Amendment rights? How does electronic publishing force changes to the rules that worked for traditional printed books and journals? In an age of advancing technology, Congress and the courts will be called upon with more and more frequency to maintain a balance between the copyright holder's economic interests and society's right to have access to information. Librarians, university administrators, authors, and publishers can benefit from Publishing and the Law: Current Legal Issues to help them understand current trends in intellectual property law.

This volume shows how, since 1950, the growth of copyright regulation has followed, and enabled, the extraordinary economic growth of the entertainment, broadcasting, software and communications industries. It reproduces articles written by an extensive list of leading thinkers. US scholars represented in readings include James Boyle, Lawrence Lessig, Pamela Samuelson, Mark Lemley, Alfred Yen, Julie Cohen, Peter Jaszi and Eben Moglen. Leading non-US contributors include Alan Story, Brian Fitzgerald and Peter Drahos. These and other authors explain copyright origins, the development of the law, the theory of enclosure, international trends, recent developments, and current and future directions. Today, the copyright system is often portrayed as an engine of growth, and effective regulation as a predictor of economic development. However, critics see dangers in the expansion of intellectual property rights. The articles in this volume focus principally on the digital age, examining how copyright regulation is likely to affect goals of dissemination and access.

In this book, leading scholars analyze the important role played by copyright exceptions in economic and cultural productivity.

Over the course of several decades, copyright protection has been expanded and extended through legislative changes occasioned by national and international developments. The content and technology industries affected by copyright and its exceptions, and in some cases balancing the two, have become increasingly important as sources of economic growth, relatively high-paying jobs, and exports. Since the expansion of digital technology in the mid-1990s, they have undergone a technological revolution that has disrupted long-established modes of creating, distributing, and using works ranging from literature and news to film and music to scientific publications and computer software. In the United States and internationally, these disruptive changes have given rise to a strident debate over copyright's proper scope and terms and means of its enforcement-a debate between those who believe the digital revolution is progressively undermining the copyright protection essential to encourage the funding, creation, and distribution of new works and those who believe that enhancements to copyright are inhibiting technological innovation and free expression. Copyright in the Digital Era: Building Evidence for Policy examines a range of questions regarding copyright policy by using a variety of methods, such as case studies, international and sectoral comparisons, and experiments and surveys. This report is especially critical in light of digital age developments that may, for example, change the incentive calculus for various actors in the copyright system, impact the costs of voluntary copyright transactions, pose new enforcement challenges, and change the optimal balance between copyright protection and exceptions.