Copyright's Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox

From eighteenth-century copyright law, to current-day copyright issues on the internet, to tomorrow's "celestial jukebox"—a digital repository of books, movies, and music available on demand—Paul Goldstein presents a thorough examination of the challenges facing copyright owners and users. One of the nation's leading authorities on intellectual property law, Goldstein offers an engaging, readable, and intelligent analysis of the effect of copyright on American politics, economy, and culture.

Goldstein presents and analyzes key legal battles, including Supreme Court decisions on home taping and 2 Live Crew's contested sampling of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman." In this revised edition, the author expands the discussion to cover electronic media, including an examination of recent Napster litigation, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the vexed Secure Digital Music Initiative, under which record companies attempted to develop effective encryption standards for their products.

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."

—Sabra Chartrand, The New York Times

"This eminent authority writes with clarity, lucidity and a wry sense of humor about a subject whose complexities can be daunting."

—Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

"A wonderfully American tale of how law, literature, politics and megabucks intersect."

—William Petrocelli, San Francisco Chronicle

In a refreshingly clearheaded and entertaining book, noted copyright expert Goldstein offers lucid answers to questions about copyright law and lore, and shows how important it is to understand that copyright issues shape not only the international marketplace but our very culture.

By analyzing key legal battles of the past few years in plain English, Goldstein (law, Stanford U.) explores the impact of copyright law on American politics, economy, and culture. The first edition was published in 1994 by Hill and Wang. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Publishers Weekly

Goldstein, a Stanford law professor and copyright expert, here makes what can be a dry subject positively sparkle. Writing with humor, color and lucidity, he offers laypeople and professionals alike a swift history of copyright, its philosophies in different nations (a matter of great importance in the current GATT talks with Europe) and zeroes in keenly on the recent controversies surrounding it. There is an account of the 30-year-old, epochal Williams & Wilkins case against government medical libraries for excessive copying of journals that, improbably, has the dash of a courtroom thriller; and a brilliant examination of Congress's reluctance to become involved in the vexed question of private, at-home copying on tape recorders and VCRs. Throughout, Goldstein is careful to make clear the radically different philosophies of intellectual property that often sunder such otherwise sound allies as publishers and librarians: the copyright optimists, seeking to expand its sway, and the pessimists, seeking to limit it. This is essential reading for book people, stimulating and thought-provoking fare for everyone. (Jan.)

Paul Goldstein is the Lillick Professor of Law at Stanford University and is widely recognized as one of the country's leading authorities on intellectual property law. He is the author of a four-volume treatise on U.S. copyright law and a one-volume treatise on international copyright law, as well as two widely adopted law school texts on intellectual property. He has testified before congressional committees dealing with intellectual property matters and has been an invited expert at international governmental meetings on copyright issues.