Full Description
An understanding of the changing nature of the law and practice of copyright infringement is a task too big for lawyers alone; it requires additional inputs from economists, historians, technologists, sociologists, cultural theorists and criminologists. Where is the boundary to be drawn between illegal imitation and legal inspiration? Would the answer be different for creators, artists and experts from different disciplines or fields? How have concepts of copyright infringement altered over time and how do such changes relate, if at all, to the cultural norms operating amongst creators in different fields? With such an approach, one might perhaps begin to address the vital and overarching question of whether strong copyright laws, rigorously enforced, impede rather than promote creativity. And what can be done to avoid any such adverse consequences, while maintaining the effectiveness of copyright as an incentive-mechanism for those who need it?
Contents
Part I. Introduction: 1. Inspiration or infringement: the plagiarist in court Isabella Alexander; Part II. History: 2. Nineteenth-century Anglo-US copyright relations: the language of piracy versus the moral high ground Catherine Seville; 3. Language, practice and history Adrian Johns; Part III. Comparative Law: 4. The metamorphosis of contrefaçon in French copyright law David Lefranc (translated by Sebastien Oddos); 5. A common lawyer's perspective on contrefaçon Jane Ginsburg; Part IV. Economics: 6. Copyright infringement, 'free-riding' and the lifeworld Anne Barron; 7. Copyright and the limits of law-and-economics analysis Jonathan Aldred; Part V. Linguistics: 8. 'Substantial similarity of expression' in copyright infringement actions: a linguistic perspective Alan Durant; 9. Refining notions of idea and expression through linguistic analysis Graeme B. Dinwoodie; Part VI. Computer Software: 10. Copyright, piracy and software Jon Crowcroft; 11. Of plots, puddings and draught-excluders: the law as it applies to the infringement of computer programs Jennifer Davis; Part VII. Information Studies: 12. Measuring text re-use in the news industry Paul Clough; 13. Reflections on measuring text re-use from a copyright law perspective Tanya Aplin; Part VIII. Literature: 14. Unoriginal genius: plagiarism and the construction of 'romantic' authorship Nick Groom; 15. The genius and the labourer: authorship in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century copyright law Isabella Alexander; Part IX. Art: 16. Piracy and authorship in contemporary art and the artistic commonwealth Daniel Mcclean; 17. Copyright's imperfect republic and the artistic commonwealth Jonathan Griffiths; Part X. Sociology and Music: 18. Reggae open source: how the absence of copyright enabled the emergence of popular music in Jamaica Jason Toynbee; 19. 'Free-riding on the riddim'? - Open source copyright law and reggae music in Jamaica Johnson Okpaluba.
