The Nature of Copyright

By L. Ray Patterson and Stanley W. Lindberg

Book Overview

This forthright and provocative book offers a new perspective on copyright law and the legal rights of individuals to use copyrighted materials. Most Americans believe that the primary purpose of copyright is to protect authors against the theft of their property. They are wrong, say L. Ray Patterson and Stanley W. Lindberg. Guaranteeing certain rights to authors (and to the entrepreneurs who publish and market their creations) is only an incidental function of copyright; it exists ultimately for the public's benefit. The constitutionally ordained purpose of copyright, the authors remind us, is to promote the public welfare by the advancement of knowledge. In The Nature of Copyright they present an extended analysis of the fair-use doctrine and articulate a new concept that they demonstrate is implicit in copyright law: the rule of personal use.

Viewing copyright in a historical context, Patterson and Lindberg show how its original purposes--to prevent both the monopoly of the book trade and the official censorship of writings--have been lost largely as a result of uninformed jurisprudence. Contributing to the problem have been special-interest groups that have circulated official-looking but misleading copyright "guidelines" for copyright users, librarians, and others. According to the authors, the claims in these intimidating guidelines, such as copying restrictions based on specific word counts, are not legally binding and indeed are often groundless. If the current trend to give publishers and other vested interests even wider protection under copyright continues, warn Patterson and Lindberg, knowledge could become a private commodity to which access is tightly controlled.

The authors also address the effect of recent court rulings in such cases as J.D.] Salinger v. Random House, Inc., and New Era Pub. Int. v. Henry Holt & Co. (the L. Ron Hubbard biography case). Severely hampering the work of biogra

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0820313629
• ISBN13: 9780820313627
• Release Date: November 1991
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Completely Changed How I Teach Copyright

This is the one book of the half dozen I've purchased to talk about the purpose of copyright. None of the art classes I took that taught copyright have ever approached copyright from this perspective and it puts unnecessary limits on aspiring artists to not address this one issue. It also discusses the challenges with determining whether or not your work infringes on someone's copyright and the reasons the courts are inconsistent with their rulings. It's a great book that works to protect the rights of artists who need access to inspiration.