Vaidhyanathan, Siva.. Copyrights and copywrongs : the rise of intellectual property and how it threatens creativity / Siva Vaidhyanathan. [0814788068 (alk. paper)] New York : New York University Press, c2001.
Call#: Van Pelt Library Rosengarten Reserve Z642 .V35 2001

 

    Siva Vaidhyanathan’s Copyright and Copywrongs is a history of Copyright law with a focus on its evolution within the film and music industries. Vaidhyanathan opens his book with an explanation of what copyright is and how it came to be.  Hi focus begins with print laws and what copyright was originally intended to do.  Next, Vaidhyanathan spends time explaining what fair use and private uses are within copyright law.  He shows how limited freedoms are granted in order to further the use and creation of intellectual property. He says copyright in the United States protects the specific expressions of ideas, not the ideas themselves.  After his explanation of the basics of copyright law, Vaidhyanathan focuses on literary copyright and Mark Twain.  He writes about Twains appearances before congress to argue for protection. This chapter focuses on the development of copyright in England and its transition to the United States.  Vaidhyanathan then shifts his focus to copyright and the film industry.  In this section he details the development of film copyright, especially highlighting the importance of Thomas Edison and D.W. Griffith in using and challenging the law and status quo.  This chapter also looks at the ideas of derivative works and the protections afforded under copyright laws. Vaidhyanathan demonstrates how the use of patents and copyrights developed both the industry and the law.  He talks about the “web” of expression and the importance of the verdicts of Judge Learned Hand in the development of film copyright laws.  The last section of Vaidhyanathan’s book looks at how the music industry deals with copyright. Vaidhyanathan explains issues like “total concept and feel.”  He also gives many examples of how musicians fight for recognition and payment when their compositions are used without consent or credit. Vaidhyanathan chooses to focus a lot on Hip Hop because that is the genre of music that has caused the most turmoil in relation to copyright. He shows how Hip Hop pushed and violates copyright law and the music industries response to Hip Hop.  
    Vaidhyanathan closes the book with a look at digital copyright issues and international law.  This section deals with computer software as well as Napster and P2P file sharing.  It also deals with international protections and standardization issues. 
    The book provides a good explanation of the history of copyright and literary copyright law and development.  However, its focus on the film industry shows how the law developed and was used and tested, the chapters pertaining to this aspect of copyright did not go into the law and ideas of copyright in the same detail of literary copyright.  The section on the music industry was also extremely limited and tangential at times.  Its focus was mainly on Hip-Hop and the tension between the genre and the law and how they functioned together.  This section did not go very deep into the basics of musical copyright and seemed to get too far away from copyright in some of its arguments about Hip Hop.  Although they are valid arguments in a broader scope, they do not seem fitting to the book as a whole.