Denise

I picked this up from the library as a bit of light reading. Ever since taking an intellectual property class in my program I have been really interested in it. When I saw this book I knew that it would be something I would want to read. I thought this book would be about all intellectual property but the author really focuses on copyright mostly with some mention of trademarks and barely anything about patents.

The author does a great job of explaining copyright and trademarks. I also feel that he explained fair use (which he is constantly mentioning) and public domain works well. He does seem to harp on fair use and public domain a lot. I do agree with him that fair use is being eroded and that the public domain is not being protected.

While I agree with him that content providers, publishers, archives, museums and the like are over-expanding their copyright and trademark rights I don't quite agree with his solutions. He seems a bit naive when he talks about his solutions. Creating a new agency just to deal with fair use or having a private attorney general, those won't be abused, right?? He does acknowledge that the private attorney general idea could be abused by unsavory lawyers but I don't think his measures to stop the abuse were harsh enough. I have to give him credit for actually coming up with some solutions when many are just ignoring the problem.

I would recommend this book to people wanting to learn more about copyright law and the problems we are having with it.