Copyright’s Highway: From the Printing Press to the Cloud
“Copyright’s Highway now an updated and expanded second edition, is one of the most brilliant, lucid, and readable explanations of what is increasingly America’s national treasure: our intellectual property. Highly recommended.”
“Paul Goldstein’s eloquent call for a more human-centered discipline of copyright blends perception and prescription to great effect, indicating to the reader how far copyright has yet to go to help creativity flourish—and how it might cover the distance.”
“Paul Goldstein can make the complex issues of copyright law accessible and captivating without sacrificing the nuances of law, politics, and custom that underlie them. With this second edition of Copyright’s Highway, Goldstein adds timely narratives, such as the Google Book Project, to illustrate the evolving nature of copyright law and its importance to our everyday lives.”
“A much-awaited new edition of Paul Goldstein’s landmark synthesis of the history and policies of US copyright law. Goldstein’s comprehensive and deep understanding of the legal, economic, and technological interests at stake thoroughly illuminates this sensitive and accessible study. A new concluding chapter meticulously and critically examines the challenges of ‘competing with free’ and the landscape-altering consequences of copyright’s encounter with internet platforms.”
Praise for the First Edition
“A clever and vibrant book that traces copyright history from the invention of the printing press through current challenges to copyright from new technologies … Most compelling [on] multimedia technologies.”
“Goldstein displays both Solomonic wisdom and Houdini-esque agility in this lively excursion into the convoluted labyrinth of copyright law … This eminent authority writes with clarity, lucidity and a wry sense of humor about a subject whose complexities can be daunting. Above all he always reminds us of what is really at stake … Equally concerned with the artist’s ‘moral right’ to protect the integrity of the artwork and the dollars-and-cents impact of the law.”
“An almost ideal introduction to and overview of the subject … Not merely does it explain what copyright is and how it works, it also shows how copyright extends far beyond legal protection of writers’ rights to their work and how it will become a vital issue in the new world of the ‘celestial jukebox.’ Copyright is really about the shape of the world we live in. Is it a world of absolute individual rights that cannot be impinged upon by the common interest, or is it a world of communal domination to which the individual must submit? … A superb book.”
“A wonderfully American tale of how law, literature, politics and megabucks intersect.”
“This elegant and accessible volume … in the scope and mastery of its subject, as well as in the clarity of its expression, helps to frame U.S. copyright law.”
