My IP & CC Annotated Bibliography Contribution

I researched the leading books and figures on this subject mostly tonight. I had researched Lessig's arguments and contributions previously which helped. Google Plus didn't work well for me in the process of finding thought leaders, but enough poking around through google searches got me to some worthwhile information. I was surprised that many key writers on this topic don't have easily accessible blogs.



These sources are helpful ways to get to the top of the copyright debate. I am curious to read the books myself but don't have the time to right now. I made sure that I got positive, credible reviews establishing each book as a landmark in the debate. The leaders have all published major works on the subject, except for Darch. He is, admittedly, not as illustrious a figure, but I think he's worth including for reasons listed below. All lecture on the subject at universities.

Further Reading
Free Ride: How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back by Robert Levine. Doubleday Press, 2011.

• Levine offers the unpopular perspective in favor of strong copyrights, and supposedly, he does it well.The New York Times review of this book said, "With this stylishly written and well-reported manifesto, Levine has become a leading voice on one side of our most hotly contested debate involving law and technology."
• [I found this book as the fourth result in a Google search for "books about copyright and technology."]

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

by Lawrence Lessig.Penguin Press HC, 2008.

• Lessig is one of the major thinkers and proponents concerning remix culture (see his profile below). He builds on many books he's already written about the Internet economy and advocates generous fair use principles in this book.
• [I knew Lessig was a go-to author and chose to highlight this book because it looked like his most recent one.]

Digital Copyright by Jessica Litman.Prometheus Books, 2006.

• Seems to be the go-to book for understanding how we got the copyright laws we have now and examines how sound the arguments that went into them actually are, focusing on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
• [I found this book because it was at the top of a private list of good books on the subject and the relevant Amazon niche.]

Thought Leaders

Lawrence Lessig

• Code: Version 2.0 is an updated edition of an book of his that examined law and the digital world. Code 2.0 contends that governments can regulate the Internet. Also see his TED talks.
• Lessig is on the Creative Commons Board of Directors, has spoken at an O'Reilly conference, and published many books about the state of the Internet and changing the way people think about copyright. He's has also taught at Stanford University. 
• [I heard about him through a recommendation from Prof. Burton in class.]

Pamela Samuelson

• Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace, a forthcoming article in the Minnesota Law review
• Samuelson is a professor at U.C. Berkeley's Center for Law and Technology. She is also on the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Board of Directors.
• [I found out about her because she was a contributing writer for the essay collection Copyright Law Vol. III: Copyright Law in the 21st Century.]

Colin Darch

• Coauthor of Education and Development on the High Seas of Copyright Infringement, an article published through OpenDemocracy in 2006.
• Darch is a lecturer at the university of Cape Town in South Africa. He doesn't have the same name recognition as other leaders in the copyright conversation, but he offers an important perspective as a citizen of a country that is on the other side of the digital divide.
• [I found out about him while looking at an article by Alan Story, another leader in the field. Darch co-authored the article.]