Browse Books

Reviewer: Michael Lesk

Gillespie describes the history and cultural attitudes of controlling digital content in the US. This book presents a view of copyright law and technology, as driven by large corporations trying to maintain economic dominance—rather than giving an accumulation of economic, legal, or technical data. A US-centric book, the focus is on American politics, and it may be surprising to realize that European countries, despite often having more leftist governments, typically have stronger intellectual property (IP) protection laws. This book will be of particular interest to anyone who wants to know how we got where we are: the history of how the motion picture and recording industries have tried to obtain changes in laws, regulations, and the technology for sale. It hasn’t always worked, but understanding how the industry attempted to control past technologies (such as digital audio tape) helps explain its current efforts to manage the Internet. Unfortunately, the impression left by this book is that control is more important than money, to the industry. Apple has done very well with iTunes and the iPod, while the conventional recording industry has been playing catchup. Similarly, Anderson [1] relates how the Internet expands the list of things we read, hear, and see, but the entertainment industry has resisted many of these changes rather than trying to profit from them. I would recommend this book to readers who want to know the context of the fight over copyright, rather than technical or economic details. It is easy to read and explains the possible cultural effects of digital rights management (as the industry would like it to be used). It’s not an optimistic book, but it is realistic. Online Computing Reviews Service