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Full-Text Articles in Law
Arresting Technology: An Essay, Ann Bartow
Arresting Technology: An Essay, Ann Bartow
Ann Bartow
This Essay considers the current trend of content owners using copyright laws (particularly the doctrine of contributory infringement) to "arrest technology," thereby burdening file sharing technologies with a duty to prevent unauthorized copying of copyrighted works in digital formats. The Author argues that copying is not necessarily theft, and that sharing music files (for example) shouldn't be treated by courts or lawmakers as if it was "the moral equivalent of looting." Instead, copyright owners should take responsibility for developing technological measures to minimize unauthorized copying, so that file trading technologies, themselves often copyrightable innovations, can flourish and copyright law promotes …
Introduction: From Sheet Music To Mp3 Files—A Brief Perspective On Napster, Harold R. Weinberg
Introduction: From Sheet Music To Mp3 Files—A Brief Perspective On Napster, Harold R. Weinberg
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
The Napster case is the current cause celebre of the digital age. The story has color. It involves music-sharing technology invented by an eighteen-year-old college dropout whose high school classmates nicknamed him "The Napster" on account of his perpetually kinky hair. The story has drama. Depending on your perspective, it pits rapacious big music companies against poor and hardworking students who just want to enjoy some tunes; or it pits creative and industrious music companies seeking a fair return on their invested effort, time, and money against greedy and irreverent music thieves. And the case has importance. Music maybe intellectual …