REBALANCING COPYRIGHT: CONSIDERING TECHNOLOGY'S IMPACT ON LIBRARIES AND THE PUBLIC INTERESTWu, Michelle M. Item #: 1006346 ISBN: 978-0-8377-4137-6 Published: Getzville; William S. Hein & Co., Inc.; 2021. Series: AALL PUBLICATIONS SERIES Subjects: INTELLECTUAL & INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY With each new significant technology advance—photocopiers, videorecorders, the graphical web—copyright owners have pushed courts and legislators to protect their interests over the public’s interest. Yet, the public interest was seen as more important by this nation’s founders, as made it possible to educate the citizenry and encouraged innovation. Should this important aspect of copyright be narrowed, the public will see a decrease in innovation, caused by a forced reinvestment in the same content repeatedly (e.g., buying the same content in Beta, VCR, DVD, BluRay). This book reminds practitioners that their clients’ short-term interests may be served by demanding strict compliance with the language of copyright law, but the cost may be damaging their long-term interests as those same laws are used to inhibit their own innovation. Rebalancing Copyright is divided into three sections. The first briefly familiarizes users with the historical context in which both copyright and libraries developed in the United States. The second to look at possible revisions to existing code sections that could be helpful to the public interest, whether in clarifying commonly confusing terms, incorporating judicial decisions into the text of statutes, or updating outdated provisions. The last section undertakes a more ambitious, theoretical overhaul of copyright principles and imagines how copyright might operate in such a reimagined environment.
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