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Hollywood's Copyright Wars: From Edison to the Internet, Peter Decherney. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 287 p. $34.50 (ISBN 978-0-231-15946-3)
Books on the implications of media copyright easily run the risk of being academically rigorous but so densely written and jargon-filled as to be barely readable by an audience unversed in the intricacies of the law. On the other hand, some guides and handbooks focus on the pragmatic "how-tos" of copyright to the detriment of historical context and critical insight. Peter Decherney, associate professor of cinema studies, English, and communication at the University of Pennsylvania, effectively and engagingly avoids both scenarios in Hollywood's Copyright Wars by chronicling the complex history and societal implications of copyright decision-making among its many stakeholders.
Decherney's work complements other recent and cogent books on the topic, including Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright by Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), Siva Vaidhyanathan's Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York: New York University Press, 2001), and John Tehranian's Infringement Nation: Copyright 2.0 and You (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). Decherney incisively historicizes the often shifting and malleable understanding of consumers, artists, and the entertainment industry on the distinctions between plagiarism and originality, mass production and artistic achievement, fair and unfair use, authorship and ownership. He also demonstrates through a vast selection of landmark court cases and legislation that the industry's response to a lack of clarity and effectiveness in the law has typically been to turn toward self-policing via restrictive technology and other means. This has often been at the sacrifice of creativity and a healthy, informed debate that can better transform our understanding of how...