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Full-Text Articles in Law

Price Discrimination, Personal Use And Piracy: Copyright Protection Of Digital Works, Michael J. Meurer Dec 1997

Price Discrimination, Personal Use And Piracy: Copyright Protection Of Digital Works, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

The growth of digital information transmission worries copyright holders who fear the new technology threatens their profits because of greater piracy and widespread sharing of digital works. They have responded with proposals for expanded protection of digital works. Specifically, they seek restrictions on personal use rights regarding digital works provided by the fair use and first sale doctrines. The proposed changes in the allocation of property rights to digital information significantly affect the ability of copyright holders to practice price discrimination. Broader user rights make discrimination more difficult; broader producer rights make discrimination easier. I argue that more price discrimination …


Cyberspace Must Exceed Its Grasp, Or What's A Metaphor? Tropes, Trips And Stumbles On The Info Highway, Robert C. Cumbow Jan 1997

Cyberspace Must Exceed Its Grasp, Or What's A Metaphor? Tropes, Trips And Stumbles On The Info Highway, Robert C. Cumbow

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay will focus on three metaphors, and show briefly how the arguments that copyright law is “unworkable” in the Internet context are based on a misreading of these metaphors. The first metaphor is the use of the term “cyberspace” to apply to the Internet; the second is the tendency to describe Internet communication as “going” somewhere. Both of these metaphors mistakenly suggest a space in which enforcement—and, indeed, violation—of any law is impossible. The third metaphor is the “wine and bottles” analogy, set forth by John Perry Barlow in his widely circulated article, “The Economy of Ideas," to show …