Moral rights: a book review

Moral Rights - Principles, Practice and New Technology, by Mira T. Sundara Rajan, is reviewed here by Iona Harding and Emily Sweetland.  Iona and Emily both belong to Baker & McKenzie LLP, where they are Associates in the firm's Intellectual Property Group. Iona and Emily write:

"The initial question posed in this book may well be the same question that many readers of this review are currently asking themselves: why care about moral rights? If that is the case, Mira Rajan has at least succeeded in knowing something about her readers and their level of interest in the subject matter. Her answer is that moral rights are "vital now more than ever as we enter the Digital Age."

This is a theme throughout the book, which begins by addressing the evolution of moral rights both throughout history and throughout the world, as well as the place of moral rights in the international copyright regime. The book then comprehensively discusses moral rights in the information technology, digital music, film, and arts industries, before looking at moral rights and open access and the future of moral rights.

With sometimes highly evocative language, the author walks us through the history of moral rights, comparing the doctrine in France (where a clear distinction is made between economic rights in a work and the author's droit moral) with that in Germany (where a monistic approach discourages the separation of economic and moral rights). She then looks at how the UK came to adopt moral rights, and explains why we rejected the concept when the Statute of Anne was passed, only acknowledging it fully in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA). Case studies of "younger" jurisdictions such as Canada and Japan provide an interesting counterpoint to the European approach, with the role of honour and reputation in Japanese culture being a driver behind the country's strong protection of moral rights and its unusual stance in allowing corporations to have moral rights in their works. 

To some it may seem that moral rights have become irrelevant in the digital age, where there is more distance than ever between the author and his work. Mira Rajan's view is that the fact that moral rights have become more difficult to enforce in practice does not mean that they are no longer relevant. However, the book reveals that moral rights are fundamentally a cultural phenomenon, a concept which is enormously dependent on the social value attributed to the author of a work and which cannot easily be codified. The practical question of how to legislate for those rights is difficult: there appears to be no clear answer, although the breadth of protection offered throughout the world may be testament to the need for moral rights regulation to provide the flexibility and "delicate nuances" which are needed in the Digital Age and which are not, she argues, sufficiently protected by the copyright regime. 

The impact of technology on moral rights is discussed over the course of a number of chapters covering music, film, visual arts and open access separately. The author explains that moral rights should be protected despite evolving technology and, as the forerunner of commercial digitisation, the music industry should provide a framework of how to apply moral rights to digital works. Fundamentally, although we may need to adapt moral rights to fit with the way the world now works, the principles of integrity, attribution and disclosure should apply equally to digital and analogue works. However, no practical examples are given as to how moral rights could or should be adapted. 

There is one small point that needs attention. The work states, at p.381, that in the UK a producer is the author of the copyright in a film but the director is entitled to moral rights "even though he is not considered an author". For films made on or after 1 July 1994, s.9(2)(ab) of the CDPA however states that the author of a film is its producer and the principal director. Unless the producer and the principle director are the same person, the film is a work of joint authorship (s.10(1A)). Professor Cornish's comments which follow appear to have been made in 1989 so are now out of date.  

The author is undeniably passionate about her subject, meaning that her writing is engaging and convincing. The narrative is rich and is illustrated with examples and stories, making it easy to read and the main themes are repeated in every chapter. Because the book deviates into philosophical and cultural arguments more than is usual in a legal textbook, it is likely to appeal to academics looking for a well researched and thorough analysis of the social and historical context of moral right,s rather than to practitioners looking for a guide to help them advise on the application of moral rights to the evolving digital world".

Moral Rights: Principles, Practice and New Technology is published by Oxford University Press. ISBN13: 9780195390315; ISBN10: 0195390318. Paperback, 572 pages. Price $150. Web page and further details here.

A conference -- and a book

"It's all good fun", said Maud, "but what the Glastonbury
Festival really needs is something a bit more, well, muddy"

This year's "Music and Intellectual Property" Conference, organised by CLT, takes place in Central London on Monday 5 December 2011. The programme is a bright and challenging one, with two 1709 Blog team members taking part in it. Ben Challis (Glastonbury Festival) is taking a look at business models in the music industry, giving some pointers as to what we should look for when deciding which are the winners, which the duds, while Jeremy Phillips is in the chair.

Topics covered this year are as follows:

• Music copyright and policy: Too Much, Too Quickly?
• What’s New, What’s on the Way: A European Perspective
• Infringement - Has the Same Old Tune Changed?
• Business Models and the Music Industry: Successes and Failures
• Online Piracy and The Digital Economy Act 2010 - Where Are We Now?
• Collective Copyright Management in Court
• Music and Copyright in the Patents County Court

For more details and registration, just click here.

This is the second year that CLT has offered Music and Copyright. Last year's conference was a great success and, coincidentally, one of its star speakers -- the University of Glasgow's Dr Andreas Rahmatian -- has just published a very thought-provoking and stimulating critique of proprietary interests in the creative sector: it's Copyright and Creativity: the making of property rights in creative works, published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

What is this book about? According to the publicity material:

"Copyright and Creativity discusses the making of property out of creative works through the legal mechanism of copyright. It shows the manner in which the law translates a great variety of expressions of the human mind into its normative system and transforms them into the property right of copyright or droit d’auteur.

This timely book examines the proprietary features of copyright, the inherent limitations of its powers, and its justification and relationship to the non-proprietary realm of the public domain. The latter part of the book deals with the ‘propertisation/commodification’ of human authors themselves through their works as alienable objects of property, the well-known ‘Romantic author’ critique as a sophisticated justification of that commodification, and at an international level, neo-feudal and neo-colonial developments as a result of this process.

This detailed study will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, legal sociologists, and specialists in copyright, property theory, or legal theory and political philosophy with particular interest in property theory. Practitioners within bodies involved in legal policy, organisations concerned with law reform, European institutions, and international organisations will also find much to interest them in this book".

This blogger read one of the chapters pre-publication and can confirm that it is a work of substantial scholarship which will be much appreciated by anyone who has a good understanding of legal systems, jurisprudential notions of property and the principles of copyright.  It makes no concessions to lazy reading, sloppy thinking or common law sentiments. There's also an excellent 22-page bibliography which reflects not only the author's linguistic skills but the considerable breadth of his inquisitive instincts when chasing strands of thought. For a relatively small book, it's a big, big read.

Bibliographical details: Hardback,  xx + 314 pages. ISBN  978 1 84844 246 7. Price £79.95 (online price £71.96). 35% discount for 1709 Blog readers who purchase it by 31 October .£51.96 + carriage charges. Web page here.

Feeling cultural and relational? Try a little copyright ...

Copyright, Communication And Culture: Towards a Relational Theory of Copyright Law, is a hot-off-the-press title from Carys J. Craig (Associate Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto). It is this reviewer's impression that a great deal of bright, sparkling thinking on copyright is emanating from Canada at the moment, and this is just the latest example of it.

What does the publisher say? According to the web-blurb:

"In this provocative book [This is a given: as readers of this blog will know, there is no obscure nook or cranny of contemporary copyright law and practice that is so bland and inoffensive that it will fail to provoke anyone at all], Carys Craig challenges the assumptions of possessive individualism embedded in modern day copyright law, arguing that the dominant conception of copyright as private property fails to adequately reflect the realities of cultural creativity [though it does adequately reflect the realities of the human urge to retain control, if not absolute ownership, of (i) the fruit of one's labour and (ii) anything one has paid for.  Can we choose our realities?].

Employing both theoretical argument and doctrinal analysis, including the novel use of feminist theory, the author explores how the assumptions of modern copyright result in law that frequently restricts the kinds of expressive activities it ought to encourage [This is a tricky proposition, with that great big 'ought' in the middle of it. And is there a serious criticism that the same assumptions result in the encouragement of expressive activities which ought to be restricted -- or is that too sensitive a point?]. In contrast, Carys Craig proposes a relational theory of copyright based on a dialogic account of authorship, and guided by the public interest in a vibrant, participatory culture. Through a critical examination of the doctrines of originality and fair dealing, as well as the relationship between copyright and freedom of expression, she explores how this relational theory of copyright law could further the public purposes of the copyright system and the social values it embodies.

This unique and insightful study will be of great interest to students and scholars of intellectual property law, communications, cultural studies, feminist theory and the arts and humanities [Funnily enough, the publishers -- who almost routinely say their books will be useful to practitioners -- don't say so here. There is actually some significant discussion of case law, by the author and by those whom she cites, from which policy-oriented lawyers and judges can benefit]".

This is a fascinating read, and a slow one for anyone who takes time to absorb the impact of abstract nouns and their full import. For various readers -- including those who love raw, undiluted Locke and those who felt that Lior Zemer's re-imagination of him in The Idea of Authorship in Copyright (Ashgate 2007) hit their intellectual sweet spot -- this book will be a bit of a bumpy ride. For those who see virtue in the creative tensions which exist in current copyright norms, it is even bumpier. Buy it for a friend you enjoy discussing copyright with, read it together and you'll never be bored.

Bibliographical data: publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011. viii + 265 pages, hardback. ISBN 978 1 84844 839 1. Price £65 (online, direct from the publisher, £58.50). Book's web page here.

The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the Way We Live

 

Cartogram by Danny Dorling - Total Population

So, here we have something new and different: a book review by a guest blogger, GM Culp!  Thank you for contributing to the random notes: geographer-at-large blog!  Nice review, and of course, we LOVE Danny Dorling! 

The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the Way We Live,

by D. Dorling, M. Newman and A. Barford

Reviewed by GM Culp, 02.19.2011

Chances are that while surfing information design or geography blogs you’ve encountered graphics similar to the one above. Perhaps you’ve seen one in poster form on the wall of the GIS lab or in the New York Times.  This cartogram is by Daniel Dorling, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield.  Although Dorling did not invent this form of presenting geographic data (hand drawn cartograms started appearing in the mid to late 1800s), he can definitely be credited with popularizing it among the data visualization set.  Back in the 1960s, Waldo Tobler developed a method utilizing the root mean squared error of unit densities to generate cartograms with a computer.  

Dorling’s cartograms are created using a method developed by two physicists, Michael Gastner and Mark Newman, and is based on principles behind the diffusion of fluid.  This software and datasets are available gratis from Dorling’s website [http://www.worldmapper.org/]. 

I received the revised and expanded edition of Dorling’s The Atlas of the Real World  (co-authored by Mark Newman and Anna Barford) as a holiday gift from my mother-in-law (along with two Toblerone candy bars…clever and delicious).  I must admit that prior to reading this text I was a bit put off by cartograms.  The idea of distorting land area seemed like a bad idea… particularly in an era when geographic illiteracy is commonplace among American school children.  [See the geographic literacy “quiz” and alarmingly sad results at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/]

I was also a bit perplexed by Dorling’s Easter egg color palette.  All this and more is explained in the book’s introduction.  Dorling justifies the cartogram’s warping of geographic space by pointing out that all projections distort.  We live on a spherical planet thus some bending and stretching must take place to create a flat map.  The color palette was actually quite thoughtfully chosen.  Europe is represented by various shades of purple, the Americas by blues, Africa by greens and Asia by ochres.  The colors are different enough to allow users to easily identify areas in what are often severely distorted maps.  The palette is also used to color code the accompanying graphs.  Many of the data used comes from the World Bank and various United Nations programs.  The Atlas of the Real World is heavy, both physically and metaphorically.  There are 382 maps ranging in topics from poverty to deforestation to deaths from preventable diseases.  It should come as no surprise that the United States is one of the wealthiest nations [162] and also a top consumer of resources [343, 344, 348, 349] with the greatest military spending [310], number of prisoners [323], arms exports [311] and nuclear weapons [313].  Our ecological footprint is the largest [354] and we have the extinguished the greatest number of species [355].  While we are eating McDonalds [076], 48% of Bangladeshi children are underweight [175].  There are quite a few surprising and interesting tidbits, too.  Did you know that Monaco has 25,641 meters of road per square acre [052] or that Sweden generates over 7500 kilowatt hours of nuclear power per person [062]?  The majority of the world’s 150 million atheists live in East Asia [382] while 97% of spiritualists reside in South America [380].  Dorling’s cartograms are tragically beautiful.  Consider the map People Killed by Drought [303] where Africa is so distorted it resembles a lady slipper orchid or People Killed by Volcanoes [302] where one might mistake South America for a bouncing beach ball.  The Atlas of the Real World is an important volume and would be a welcome addition to any human geography, cartography, environmental justice, or information design library.

[http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Real-World-Mapping-Expanded/dp/0500288534/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1]

Maps of the Imagination

"The Silver Dog With the Golden Tail - Will the Tail Wag the Dog, or the Dog Wag The Tail?"

Boston Globe, September 13, 1896. 

An 1896 map “as a political cartoon advocating for free and unlimited silver coinage – a departure from the gold standard – to lift the nation out of financial depression,” (Turchi, 2007: 124-125.)

Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer

Last Thursday evening, I attended a very intriguing panel discussion called “Starting From Here: Every Place Tells a Story,” organized by the French Institute / Alliance Française.  The event was announced by the following teaser:

“How are stories like maps, and maps like stories?  How do we understand and talk about place?  These are some of the questions the panelists—American writers Reif Larsen and Peter Turchi, French novelist Philippe Vasset, and French geographer Michel Lussault—will consider from the vantages of literature, psychology, and social science.” 

Now, what geographer, especially one who loves to write, could resist attending?  As the teaser mentioned, one of the panelists was Peter Turchi, the author of Maps of the Imagination: the Writer as Cartographer, and the ideas in his book were much discussed during the evening (and afterwards, I shamelessly asked him to autograph my rather untidy and dog-eared copy of the book, which he graciously obliged). 

When I first heard about the premise of his book, Maps of the Imagination, I thought it was a bit of a stretch, to try to shoehorn the two very distinct disciplines of cartography and writing together like that: comparing problems faced by writers (and their solutions) with problems that cartographers face, and to some degree, solve, in map making.  It seemed gimmicky to me: what could the two fields have in common, and what on earth could writers hope to learn by thinking about cartography? 

Once I started reading the book, I stopped worrying about all that.  First of all, I found reading the book terribly enjoyable; it was, as they say, a very pleasurable “read.”  Mr. Turchi’s writing style is sophisticated yet accessible, and he has managed to very succinctly distill some complicated cartographic principles and make it relevant to writers (and anyone else, really).  And considering that he is not a cartographer by training (although he does profess to a life-long love of maps), that is really saying something. 

Secondly, he manages to actually make a cogent argument that there are many similarities between cartography and writing, if not in the actual technical skills involved, then in the thought processes and decision-making that goes into each.  He very persuasively convinces us that writers actually might have something to LEARN from the principles of cartography. 

Thirdly, I was thoroughly transported by some of his literary examples.  Although I write all day long, I am in no way a trained writer, and am especially clueless about the creative writing process, as well as being generally ignorant of modes of literary criticism.  Since this was, for me, a novel way of thinking about the creative process, it was therefore quite interesting and eye-opening.  And some of his literary examples made me want to run out and buy the books he referenced in his examples. 

Fourthly, another major plus is that the book is chock-a-block with very nice (full-color) reproductions of all kinds of historic and unusual maps and map-like images.  That was unexpected!  19^th century Pony Express route maps, a 15^th century Ottoman Empire map of the Nile delta, a 16^th century Aztec map of a hacienda in Mexico, a 12^th century Spanish monk’s map commentary of the Apocalypse, to name just a few of the maps in the first two chapters. 

OK, so what are some of his arguments?  How is understanding cartography helpful to writing?  I will attempt to synopsize a couple of the main chapter topics, but I really just recommend reading the book, since my summaries are likely to be entirely inadequate.  

Maps are like stories – information unfolds – the mapmaker tells just the parts that s/he feels are relevant or important to our understanding of the story s/he wants to tell.  Maps and stories, both, are attempts to make sense of the world.  Map makers and writers are explorers, charting new territories, or else are acting as guides through territories familiar to them (but not necessarily familiar to the reader/viewer). 

Blank spots on the map, the parts unsaid, the parts unknown, were originally a device used in map-making when the map-maker literally didn’t know what was there.  But these blank spaces tend to draw in the viewer, and encourage them to use their imaginations.  Likewise, there are certain devices in fiction and poetry that serve the same purpose.  Blank spaces in literature can serve as points of transition, points of meditation, allowing the reader to discover things for herself.  Turchi explores the question of how much to leave in, and what to take out in order for the story to effectively capture the reader without being dull and predictable, or too cluttered with distracting detail.  How close does a writer have to hew to realistic portrayal in order for the reader to understand sufficiently, without the writer having to spell out every last detail?  Can readers “fill in the blanks?” 

The idea that no map is an objective representation of reality has been well-popularized in recent years by Mark Monmonier, Denis Wood, and others.  Maps, however, continue to command an unusual degree of authority, despite the fact that they are basically presenting a particular, and by necessity, a biased perspective of things.  The map-maker persuades us that the map is a “true” depiction of reality.  Similarly, reading a novel, short story, or poem also requires us to suspend disbelief and be persuaded by the author that what we are reading matters, and is true, although we are being asked to interpret a world created by the writer.  The first “lie” with maps, of course, is that on a flat piece of paper (or other media), what we are really looking at is the three-dimensional world.  An irregular oblate spheroid has been squashed flat, stretched, torn, compressed, and subject to shearing in various places, and reduced almost beyond recognition, but it still represents reality.  Likewise, a writer of fiction will try to convince us that these chicken scratches on a piece of paper are all we need to look at to create or re-create a world. 

Turchi brings in the matter of map projections and mapping conventions to further develop these analogies, and in the process cites many obscure, unusual, and also well-known examples throughout the book to illustrate his lines of reasoning.  In the board game “Risk,” for example, he points out how the Mercator projection places Europe at the center of the map, and minimizes the size of Africa and South America, to arrive at “a map of the planet distorted in the interest of good-natured world domination,” (p. 176).  And the board game “Monopoly,” being a highly stylized map of Atlantic City real estate, is “distorted in the interest of high rollers,” (p. 177).

He deconstructs the meaning in maps and then applies that deconstruction to writing.  Even for someone well-versed in cartographic history and the uses and mis-uses of maps, it is quite an interesting exposition, and Turchi offers a unique and fresh outlook on cartography that perhaps only a thoughtful non-geographer can do.    

At the event on Thursday evening, only one of the four panelists was an actual geographer, the other three being writers with a geographical bent.  What struck me (and undoubtedly others in the audience, including our own EES Geography Program’s Katie Gill, who mentioned this during the audience Q&A) was each of their strong recollections of their childhood fascination with maps, and the influence that this early study of maps had on their eventual lives and their writing.  As panel discussions go, it was quite entertaining; the moderator did a masterful job of putting out provocative questions to the four panelists.  As in every event like this, it just scratched the surface of some fascinating viewpoints, whetting the appetite for more. 

Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, by Peter Turchi (2007, paperback).

Script Generator, by Philippe Vasset, (2005).  A novel about a mining geologist in Liberia who discovers part of a software manual for a program that computer-generates screenplays, novels, etc., and purports to be able to do away with the need for writers forever.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen (2010, reprint).  A novel about 12-year old genius cartographer who undertakes an adventurous cross-country trip – complete with “his” maps and drawings. 

L’Homme Spatial (2007); and 

De la Lutte des Classes a la Lutte des Places, by Michel Lussault (2009).  (Class Struggle, Place [Location?] Struggle) presents Lussault’s original geographical approach and explains the importance of geography in social life.  Lussault is arguably the most important Geographer in France today (he is also the President of Lyons University), but he does not publish in English. 

Moral Rights: the book

Moral Rights, spearheaded by British barristers and scholars Kevin Garnett and QC, Gillian Davies, is a massive work on what many practitioners would mistakenly write off as a topic of minor importance. In truth, while the volume of litigation on moral rights -- particularly the right of paternity and the right to the integrity of one's work -- has never been great, the number of problems caused by a failure to understand these rights and to take them into account in a commercial setting has increased, and is likely to continue to do so now that the universal medium of the internet has both amplified the effect of many moral rights infractions and increased the likelihood of their being seen by authors. The categorisation of these rights as "moral" as opposed to "economic" has been to some extent to blame for their neglect: while they are not economic in the sense that rights such as the reproduction and transmission rights influence trade in copyright works, they can have a resoundingly economic impact whether they are exploited, waived or enforced.

While both Kevin and Gillian are very much associated with patents (Kevin is currently a Board of Appeal member at the European Patent Office, where Gillian once chaired a Technical Board of Appeals and sat as a member of the Enlarged Board), and both are creatures of Hogarth Chambers, it is for their work in the field of copyright that they are probably best known and most appreciated:  both have been major contributors to the same publisher's IP soap Copinger and Skone James on Copyright, first published in 1870 and thus even more long-running than Coronation Street.  Gillian has also served a term at the helm of IFPI, so the copyright credentials of this pairing are unimpeachable.

So what does the book do? Why go to such lengths to create and publish a weighty tome on so under-estimated and misunderstood a topic?  The publishers don't give away much information themselves (certainly, when compared with most other publishers of legal books, Sweet & Maxwell are quite stingy with their information). Anyway, according to the book's web page, Kevin and Gillian offer "a practical insight into an area not covered by other texts" -- which is mainly true.  Most books on copyright say something about moral rights, but you'd have to lay a lot of them end to end in order to cover the ground this subject-specific title does.  The publishers then list its virtues.  It:

• Examines moral rights in the UK in detail and contrasts with that of key EU and international jurisdictions

• Discusses the historical treatment of moral rights in the UK

• Considers copyright, the paternity right, the right to privacy and transmission of moral rights

• Offers a practical and comparative approach to an area about which little has been written

• Looks at how moral rights have developed internationally, and examines their treatment in international and regional conventions and treaties

• Compares moral rights in more established civil law jurisdictions with those in less developed common law jurisdictions

• Examines moral rights in 19 of the key European and international jurisdictions, with each jurisdiction being covered by a local copyright expert

• Covers each jurisdiction systematically and comprehensively

• Discusses the significant case law from civil law jurisdictions

• Includes relevant sections of the Copyright, Patents and Designs Act 1988 for easy reference

• Features an extensive bibliography>

Fortunately the authors are not expected to do this alone.  They are assisted by a team of many talents, drawing on national (and in some cases multinational) expertise supplied by a long list of contributing experts among whom can be found such household names as Adolf Dietz, Willem Grosheide, Paul Torremans, Irini Stamatoudi and Elizabeth Adeney, aided and abetted by Maria Mercedes Frabboni, Patricia Akester, Jacques de Werra, Gadi Oron and more besides.  Quite why this useful information -- which adds considerable value and authority to the book -- is not made available to visitors to the book's web details is beyond the understanding of this reviewer.  The book itself is a tour de force.  It covers practically every possible issue arising from the various moral rights and is not just a one-stop-shop but a springboard from which the reader can reach out to different legal traditions, technologies and cultures and learn more than he or she ever imagined to exist on the subject.  Well done!

Bibliographical details. Published by Sweet & Maxwell, October 2010. ISBN 9780421729407. Hardback, cxii + 1,177 pages. Price £165. Book's web page here.  Rupture factor: considerable.

Book review: more arrows than Agincourt

A handsome new fourth edition of Intellectual Property and Media Law Companion, authored by Alasdair Bleakley (Addleshaw Goddard LLP), Edward Baden-Powell (Michael Simkins LLP) and Jeffrey Eneberi (Just-Eat), was published earlier this year. As the publishers state, this is the only title in the UK market that combines intellectual property and media law in a single book. While this is true, it may be fairer to categorise it as first and foremost a media law text, but with a useful quantity of some of the main and/or more media-relevant bits of IP to provide some helpful reinforcement.  According to the web-blurb:

"Lawyers, media and technology professionals, and students of the law, alike, will benefit from the clear layout and style of this book – making it a ‘must have’ for your bookshelf. This book should be your first point of reference when advising your clients or colleagues, or for enabling you to excel in your particular field of media or technology.

With case and legislation citations included throughout, this is a user-friendly starting-point for researching primary sources".

This book's strength does not lie in its extent of coverage of the law, which in around 550 pages including lists and the index was always going to be selective.  It lies in the book's sheer accessibility and confident guidance to the reader.  If you've got a library shelf full of authoritative texts spanning the entirety of IP and media law, this is not the book that will provide that penetrating insight on which you base your arguments to the Supreme Court.  It is however a very handy device for any lawyer who is working under the time pressure imposed on him by any commercial client who lives with deadlines and who, when he asks his lawyer a question, expects the answer by return (and at not much less speed than Roger Federer might be expected to return a serve).   With excellent diagrams and lists, more arrows than Agincourt and more bullets than the British Army will be able to muster after the spending cuts, this book rushes along at a breathless pace which suggests that it might be a good idea to get into training before reading it.

The best bits of this book are the chapters at the end, which are problem-based or industry-specific.  Content clearance, marketing, the music industry, TV and film --these give the authors a chance to demonstrate not only what the law is (and frankly there's not a lot of law on things like clearance of rights) but on what the problems are and how to tackle them head-on.  These are the zones in which Experience is King and the Law is a mere handmaiden. This reviewer bets that the bits at the back are the bits that get the heaviest usage too.

Bibliographical data: publisher, Bloomsbury Professional. ISBN 978 1 84766 042 8. Paperback, xxxvi + 521 pages. £35. Book's web page here.

Book Review: International Copyright 2nd Ed.

Normally, I like to sit and read a book cover to cover before reviewing it, but the Second Edition of Paul Goldstein and Bernt Hugenholtz’s International Copyright is not a sit-down-and-read type of book.  It is a reference book, the kind you want to have near your desk at all times.

The book covers the usual suspects, Berne, TRIPs, the UCC, etc.  Sounds not so exciting, but wait.  The neat part comes in how these are approached and what else is included.  The book is arranged in sections of what I can best describe as biggest-issue topics: Norms,

Territoriality, Term of Protection, Economic Rights, Moral Rights, you get the picture.  Each relevant treaty and agreement is addressed under each topic, showing you the interplay between them.  The effects of smaller agreements, such as regional agreements and directives, are also included in these sections.

In addition to the scholar-favorite topics of norms and traditions, the book includes information about the reality of enforcing contracts (Section 4.4.3 specifically address what happens when the law of the protecting country and the law of the contract conflict), and there is an entire chapter devoted to enforcement.

Most of the examples given in the book appear to be from North America or Europe.  While this is a little disappointing, it is also understandable – the main agreements, the underlying principle's of today’s copyright, and the authors are Western in origin.  To the author’s credit, the index indicates that the book does include some information from every region of the world.

The Appendix is a nice addition.  Although all the information in it – copies of the main treaties and lists of their signatories – can be found on wipo.int or Wikipedia, it’s nice to have the information just a thumb flip away.

From the publishers:

“Written by two of the most experienced practitioners in the United States and abroad, International Copyright: Principles, Law and Practice (Oxford, October 2010) proves to be a great analysis of the principal legal doctrines affecting copyright practice.”

Title: International Copyright: Principles, Law and Practice
Authors: Paul Goldstein (Stanford University) and Bernt Hugenholtz (University of Amsterdam)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Pages: 407 (book-book), 565 (with appendix and index), 592 (with preface and everything)
Color: very pretty medium green
Sturdy, heavy-weight paper-back cover
List Price: $95.00

Global Copyright: 300 Years -- but how many more?

Global Copyright: Three Hundred Years Since the Statute of Anne, from 1709 to Cyberspace is the title of this splendid and exuberant celebration of copyright, edited by the talented triumvirate of Professors Lionel Bently (Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of Cambridge), Uma Suthersanen (Queen Mary, University of London) and Paul Torremans (School of Law, University of Nottingham).  Given the number of death notices which copyright has received recently, this collection of essays might be the last to commemorate this great right -- which more than any other has shaped and channelled the flow of global culture over the previous century -- before it dwindles into insignificance in the brave new world of free access and perfect, irresistible reproduction.

As a purveyor of fine intellectual property texts, publisher Edward Elgar is having none of this pessimism (though it would be difficult to find any publisher advertising its wares on the basis that, if you don't buy them now, you'll be too late because their subject matter will have become a quaint historical footnote, like frankalmoigne).  So how does it describe this work?

This innovative book celebrates the tri-centenary of modern copyright, which began with the enactment of the Statute of Anne by the British Parliament in 1709, and was soon followed by other copyright legislation abroad. The Statute of Anne is traditionally claimed to be the world’s first copyright statute, and is thus viewed as the origin of a system of national laws that today exists in virtually all countries of the world. However, this book illustrates that while there is some truth in this claim, it is also important to treat it with caution.

Written by leading experts from across the globe, this comprehensive (historical) analysis breaks new ground on modern copyright issues such as digital libraries, illegal downloading and distribution, international exhaustion and ‘new formalities’. The expert contributors consider what lessons can be learnt from the achievements made during the last 300 years, and whether they can be used to overcome the new challenges facing copyright.

This in-depth scientific analysis of the legacy of the Statute of Anne 300 years on from its origins will provide copyright practitioners, academics, policy makers and postgraduate students with a unique and fascinating read.

In other words, the experience of the past can help understand the present, but don't too excited about its value for the future, which is conditional on too many technological uncertainties.

There's a wonderful cast of contributors, though some of the lesser lights twinkle just as brightly in this firmament as do their better-known colleagues. It would be invidious to pick out names, so for once I won't.

Bibliographic details. Published 2010. xiii + 522 pages. Hardback. ISBN 978 1 84844 766 0. Price£125 (the publisher's online discount brings this down to £112.50). This book is also available as an ebook 978 1 84980 642 8.  Web page here.

Parody: a new title

The web page says this book isn't published yet (it isn't officially out till August), but I spotted a copy on the table in the reception area of Oxford University Press's palatial headquarters in Jericho. The Oxford Book of Parodies, edited by John Gross, is sadly short of detailed analysis of the legislative and case law provisions governing parody as a defence to copyright infringement, private rights versus freedom of speech, transformative use and so forth, but it is rich in enjoyable examples of parody and great fun. Says the web-blurb:

"Parodies come in all shapes and sizes. There are broad parodies and subtle parodies, ingenious imitations and knockabout spoofs, scornful lampoons and affectionate pastiches. All these varieties, and many others, appear in this delightful new anthology compiled by master anthologist John Gross.

The classics of the genre are all here, but so are scores of lesser known but scarcely less brilliant works. At every stage there are surprises. Proust visits Chelsea, Yeats re-writes "Old King Cole," Harry Potter encounters Mick Jagger, a modernized Sermon on the Mount rubs shoulders with an obituary of Sherlock Holmes. The collection provides a hilarious running commentary on literary history, but it also looks beyond literature to include such things as ad parodies, political parodies, and even a scientific hoax.

The collection includes work by such accomplished parodists as Max Beerbohm, Robert Benchley, Bret Harte, H. L. Mencken, George Orwell, James Thurber, Peter Ustinov, and Evelyn Waugh. And the "victims" include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Poe, Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, Conan Doyle, A. A. Milne, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Cole Porter, Ernest Hemingway, Allen Ginsberg, Martin Amis, and many others. The first and longer of the book's two parts is devoted to English-language authors, arranged in chronological order, along with parodies that they have inspired. The second part includes sections on more general literary topics, on aspects of individual authors which transcend the format of the first part, and on a handful of foreign writers".

Sadly I wasn't kept waiting more than a few minutes, so had little opportunity to sample this book's contents -- but it did seem fun.

Harmonizing European Copyright Law

Harmonizing European Copyright Law: The Challenges of Better Lawmaking, by the talented team of Mireille van Eechoud, P. Bernt Hugenholtz, Lucie Guibault, Stefan Van Gompel and Natali Helberger, was published towards the end of last year. The title is published by Wolters Kluwer within its Information Law Series and is based upon the results of two major studies which the European Commission commissioned in 2006 and 2007 -- not that the Commission has a great track record in taking the reports that emanate from the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law ((IViR) warmly to its heart.

The book's web-blurb states as follows:

"This book will provide analysis of the current state of play of and suggest direction for future development of European copyright law and related rights. The acquis communautaire is reviewed in depth, starting with an analysis of the exact competence of the EC in relation to its declared policy ambitions from the past to the present.

Next, the body of European copyright law is described. This is done not in the traditional way, i.e. on a directive-by-directive basis, but following a scheme of the principal elements that national copyright and related rights law share (e.g. what is protected subject matter, who are beneficiaries, what is the nature and extent of the exclusive rights and limitations, term of protection). Of all principal issues, the degree and scope of harmonization is analysed, put into the perspective of Member States’ obligations under the relevant international treaties (e.g. Berne Convention, Rome Convention, TRIPS agreement, WIPO internet treaties).

In addition, a number of items on the European Commissions current legislative agenda are subjected to a critical review, in light of our findings on the successes and shortcomings of the harmonization process so far".

The principal headings into which copyright is divided relate to (i) what is protected, to whom does it belong and for how long? (ii) the various rights to stop people doing things and the borders of those rights, (iii) those conceptually new-fangled topics, "rights management information" and technical protection measures. Following this, the study focuses on specific areas in which copyright is brought to bear: (iv) extension of term for sound recordings, (v) the term of protection of co-written musical works ('musical', in this context, including works which consist of both music and lyrics), (vi) the increasingly popular topic of orphan works, (vii) an appraisal of harmonisation ("blessings and curses") and (viii) the 'last frontier' of territoriality. Each of these units has its own conclusions and assessment.

Probably the best assessment overall of Europe's attempts at harmonisation may be summarised as follows: difficult task, not always well done; improvements are needed in terms of (i) identifying the issues, (ii) formulating the correct policy for dealing with them and (iii) articulating that policy in the manner best able to facilitate its consistent implementation. Let's hope that the next edition of this work can, without loss of the sometimes painful directness which characterises it, offer news of improved performance in this, the most slippery and intransigent of Europe's IP rights to harmonise.

Bibliographic details: ISBN 9041131302 , ISBN 13: 9789041131300. Hard cover, xviii + 375 pp. Price: $US 145. Web page here.