Raymond Wacks: Privacy: A Very Short Introduction (2010)

It is widely recognized that our privacy is under threat. Electronic surveillance, biometrics, CCTV, ID cards, RFID codes, online security, encryption, the interception of email, the monitoring of employees–all raise fundamental questions about privacy. Legal expert Raymond Wacks here provides a compact introduction to this complex and controversial concept. He explores the tension between free speech and privacy which is often tested by paparazzi, with their intrusive journalism and sensational disclosures of the private lives of celebrities. He also looks at laws in many nations that regulate the collection and use of personal information, whether highly sensitive–medical and financial information–or commonplace transactions and details about us. The protection of personal data represents a classic instance of the law’s struggle to keep abreast with technology, as the nullinformation revolutionnull has spawned problems that test the ability of the law to provide adequate protection against abuse. The book concludes that, while under attack from many quarters, privacy remains an essential human right, recognized as such by many international organizations.

* Examines why we need privacy and value it so much, and what constitutes an invasion of privacy
* Considers the issues of privacy and security, privacy and the paparazzi, and the protection of personal data
* Discusses the importance of privacy in debates about law and ethics
* Puts privacy in its wider social context by giving examples of its sociological and psychological impact
* Ray Wacks is an expert on the legal protection of privacy and how this protection varies in different countries
* Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions series – over three million copies sold worldwide

Publisher Oxford University Press, 2010
Series: Very Short Introductions
ISBN 0199556539, 9780199556533
Length 160 pages

publisher
google books

Download

Artur-Axel Wandtke (ed.): Medienrecht: Praxishandbuch (2008) [German]

Dem “Medienrecht” als Gestaltungsmittel in den Informations- und Kommunikationsprozessen kommt in der praktischen Unternehmenskultur und in der Rechtsdurchsetzung eine immer größer werdende Bedeutung zu. Wirtschaftlich gewinnen die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen der Informations- und Kommunikationsprozesse in der geistigen Produktion und deren Verwertungsbedingungen immer mehr an Gewicht. Werbemaßnahmen, Merchandising, Public Relations, kommerzialisierte Persönlichkeitsrechte, Telemedien, Online-Nutzung, Presseprodukte, Film- und Fernsehwerke und andere Erscheinungsformen stehen stellvertretend für eine Individual- und Massenkommunikation, die im herkömmlichen und virtuellen Markt eine entscheidende Rolle spielen.

Mit diesem Handbuch wird auf wissenschaftlicher Grundlage eine Gesamtdarstellung vor allem der privatrechtlichen Medienprozesse vorgelegt, die im Zusammenhang mit der Produktion und Vermarktung bzw. Nutzung von Zeichen, Bildern, Tönen und anderen Informationen (Medienprodukten) entstehen. Dabei werden auch die europarechtlichen Aspekte der Entwicklung des Medienrechts dargestellt.

Publisher Walter de Gruyter, 2008
ISBN 3899494229, 9783899494228
Length 1932 pages

publisher
google books

Download

Marjorie Heins, Tricia Beckles: Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control (2005)

Are increasingly heavy assertions of control by copyright and trademark owners smothering fair use and free expression? The product of more than a year of research, Will Fair Use Survive? paints a striking picture of an intellectual property system that is out of balance. The report includes six recommendations for policy change.

This report is covered by a Creative Commons “Attribution – No Derivs – NonCommercial” License. You may copy it in its entirety as long as you credit the Brennan Center for Justice, Free Expression Policy Project. You may not edit or revise it, or copy portions, without permission (except, of course,
for fair use).

A Public Policy Report
Publisher: Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law

More info (publisher)
More info

Download

YiJun Tian: Re-thinking Intellectual Property. The Political Economy of Copyright Protection in the Digital Era (2008)

Copyright laws, along with other Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), constitute the legal foundation for the “global knowledge-based economy” and copyright law now plays an increasingly important role in the creation of business fortunes, the access to and dissemination of knowledge, and human development in general.

This book examines major problems in the current IPR regime, particularly the copyright regime, in the context of digitization, knowledge economy, and globalization. The book contends that the final goals of IP law and policy-making are to enhance the progress of science and economic development, and the use and even-distribution of intellectual resource at the global level. By referring to major international IP consensus, recent developments in regional IP forums and the successful experiences of various countries, YiJun Tian is able to provide specific theoretical, policy and legislative suggestions for addressing current copyright challenges. The book contends that each nation should strengthen the coordination of its IP protection and development strategies, adopt a more systematic and heterogeneous approach, and make IP theory, policy, specific legal mechanisms, marketing forces and all other available measures work collectively to deal with digital challenges and in a way that contributes to the establishment of a knowledge equilibrium international society.

Publisher Taylor & Francis, 2008
ISBN 0415465346, 9780415465342
Length 338 pages

More info (publisher)
More info (google books)

Download

Joseph William Singer: Entitlement: The Paradoxes of Property (2000)

In this important work of legal, political, and moral theory, Joseph William Singer offers a controversial new view of property and the entitlements and obligations of its owners. Singer argues against the conventional understanding that owners have the right to control their property as they see fit, with few limitations by government. Instead, property should be understood as a mode of organizing social relations, he says, and he explains the potent consequences of this idea.

Singer focuses on the ways in which property law reflects and shapes social relationships. He contends that property is a matter not of right but of entitlement—and entitlement, in Singer’s work, is a complex accommodation of mutual claims. Property requires regulation—property is a system and not just an individual entitlement, and the system must support a form of social life that spreads wealth, promotes liberty, avoids undue concentration of power, and furthers justice. The author argues that owners have not only rights but obligations as well—to other owners, to nonowners, and to the community as a whole. Those obligations ensure that property rights function to shape social relationships in ways that are both just and defensible.

Publisher Yale University Press, 2000
ISBN 0300080190, 9780300080193
Length 241 pages

More info (publisher)
More info (google books)

Download

Lawrence Liang: Guide to Open Content Licenses v1.2 (2004)

Copyright is one of the most hotly contested areas of contemporary cultures. Many feel that current copyright regulations fail to meet the needs of information society and the realities of creative work. Many new practices of copyright – licenses which maintain the chosen rights of authors, but which work with rather than block the creative opportunities of the digital public domain – have emerged over the last few years.

This is the first systematic survey of the major open content licenses. Presented in a handy pocket-format it is designed both for non-specialists want to choose an appropriate use of copyright and for people who want solid background information.

Whether you are an artist, a peer-to-peer file sharer, or author of scientific papers the Guide to Open Content Licenses will provide you with an invaluable oversight and a how-to guide.

Published by Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam
Size: 110 A6 pages, paperbound
ISBN: 90-72855-16-7
Price: a gift
Additional material, chapter 1: Florian Cramer
Editors: Florian Cramer, Matthew Fuller, Calum Selkirk
Graphic design and book typography: Femke Snelting
HTML version: Florian Cramer
December 2004
Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

More info (publisher)

Direct download
HTML version

International Commons at the Digital Age. La création en partage (2004)

Creative Commons is a nonprofit that offers an alternative to full copyright to help authors to share and build upon creative works. The book analyses the first questions raised by the introduction of Creative Commons licenses in different legal systems and shows the real accounting of « cultural diversity » through Internet actors self-regulation. The authors defend that open access to information and culture for all is possible.

Edited by Danièle Bourcier & Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay
Published by Romillat
collection Droit et Technologies

This book is available under a Creative Commons license, at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

More info (publisher)

Direct download

Siva Vaidhyanathan: Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (2001)

Copyright reflects far more than economic interests. Embedded within conflicts over royalties and infringement are cultural values—about race, class, access, ownership, free speech, and democracy—which influence how rights are determined and enforced. Questions of legitimacy—of what constitutes “intellectual property” or “fair use,” and of how to locate a precise moment of cultural creation—have become enormously complicated in recent years, as advances in technology have exponentially increased the speed of cultural reproduction and dissemination.

In Copyrights and Copywrongs, Siva Vaidhyanathan tracks the history of American copyright law through the 20th century, from Mark Twain’s vehement exhortations for “thick” copyright protection, to recent lawsuits regarding sampling in rap music and the “digital moment,” exemplified by the rise of Napster and MP3 technology. He argues persuasively that in its current punitive, highly restrictive form, American copyright law hinders cultural production, thereby contributing to the poverty of civic culture.

In addition to choking cultural expression, recent copyright law, Vaidhyanathan argues, effectively sanctions biases against cultural traditions which differ from the Anglo-European model. In African-based cultures, borrowing from and building upon earlier cultural expressions is not considered a legal trespass, but a tribute. Rap and hip hop artists who practice such “borrowing” by sampling and mixing, however, have been sued for copyright violation and forced to pay substantial monetary damages. Similarly, the oral transmission of culture, which has a centuries-old tradition within African American culture, is complicated by current copyright laws. How, for example, can ownership of music, lyrics, or stories which have been passed down through generations be determined? Upon close examination, strict legal guidelines prove insensitive to the diverse forms of cultural expression prevalent in the United States, and reveal much about the racialized cultural values which permeate our system of laws. Ultimately, copyright is a necessary policy that should balance public and private interests but the recent rise of “intellectual property” as a concept have overthrown that balance. Copyright, Vaidhyanathan asserts, is policy, not property.

Bringing to light the republican principles behind original copyright laws as well as present-day imbalances and future possibilities for freer expression and artistic equity, this volume takes important strides towards unraveling the complex web of culture, law, race, and technology in today’s global marketplace.

Publisher New York University Press, 2001
ISBN 0-8147-8806-8
Length 256 pages

Keywords and phrases
Mark Twain, Napster, Pac-man, U.S. Supreme Court, D. W. Griffith, African American, Ben-Hur, Led Zeppelin, Marx Brothers, Statute of Anne, Willie Dixon, rhythm and blues, Groucho Marx, Martha Graham, DMCA, U.S. Congress, Schoolly D, intellectual property, rap music, He’s So Fine

More info (publisher)
More info (google books)

Download

Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman (2002)

The intersection of ethics, law, business and computer software is the subject of these essays and speeches by MacArthur Foundation Grant winner, Richard M. Stallman. This collection includes historical writings such as The GNU Manifesto, which defined and launched the activist Free Software Movement, along with new writings on hot topics in copyright, patent law, and the controversial issue of “trusted computing.” Stallman takes a critical look at common abuses of copyright law and patents when applied to computer software programs, and how these abuses damage our entire society and remove our existing freedoms. He also discusses the social aspects of software and how free software can create community and social justice.

Given the current turmoil in copyright and patent laws, including the DMCA and proposed CBDTPA, these essays are more relevant than ever. Stallman tackles head-on the essential issues driving the current changes in copyright law. He argues that for creativity to flourish, software must be free of inappropriate and overly-broad legal constraints. Over the past twenty years his arguments and actions have changed the course of software history; this new book is sure to impact the future of software and legal policies in the years to come.

By Richard M. Stallman, Lawrence Lessig, Joshua Gay, Free Software Foundation (Cambridge, Mass.)
Contributor Lawrence Lessig, Joshua Gay
Published by Free Software Foundation, 2002
ISBN 1882114981, 9781882114986
224 pages

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this book provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

More info (includes PDF downloads of Italian, Catalan, and Spanish translations of the book)

Direct download, Download

Lawrence Lessig: Code: Version 2.0 (2006)

From the Preface: “This is a translation of an old book—indeed, in Internet time, it is a translation of an ancient text.” That text is Lessig’s “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.” The second version of that book is “Code v2.” The aim of Code v2 is to update the earlier work, making its argument more relevant to the current internet.

Code v2 was written in part through a collaborative Wiki. That version is still accessible here. Lessig took the Wiki text as of 12/31/05, and then added his own edits. Code v2 is the result.

The Wiki text was licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. So too is the derivative. Reflecting the contributions of the community to this new work, all royalties have been dedicated to Creative Commons.

You can download the full text in PDF form. The text is also available in a Wiki hosted by SocialText. And obviously, you can also buy the book at the links to the right. (A wise choice, as it is cheaper than printing the book in most contexts.)

This second edition, or Version 2.0, of Code has been prepared through the author’s wiki, a web site that allows readers to edit the text, making this the first reader-edited revision of a popular book

Edition: 2
Published by Basic Books, 2006
ISBN 0465039146, 9780465039142
410 pages

project website

Direct download
Direct download (version 1) [Croatian]

EFF: Surveillance Self-Defense (2009)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created this Surveillance Self-Defense site to educate the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance in the United States, providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it.

Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) exists to answer two main questions: What can the government legally do to spy on your computer data and communications? And what can you legally do to protect yourself against such spying?

After an introductory discussion of how you should think about making security decisions — it’s all about risk management — we’ll be answering those two questions for three types of data:

First, we’re going to talk about the threat to the data stored on your computer posed by searches and seizures by law enforcement, as well as subpoenas demanding your records.

Second, we’re going to talk about the threat to your data on the wire — that is, your data as it’s being transmitted — posed by wiretapping and other real-time surveillance of your telephone and Internet communications by law enforcement.

Third, we’re going to describe the information about you that is stored by third parties like your phone company and your Internet service provider, and how law enforcement officials can get it.

In each of these three sections, we’re going to give you practical advice about how to protect your private data against law enforcement agents.

In a fourth section, we’ll also provide some basic information about the U.S. government’s expanded legal authority when it comes to foreign intelligence and terrorism investigations.

Finally, we’ve collected several articles about specific defensive technologies that you can use to protect your privacy, which are linked to from the other sections or can be accessed individually. So, for example, if you’re only looking for information about how to securely delete your files, or how to use encryption to protect the privacy of your emails or instant messages, you can just directly visit that article.

More info

Download (Printer-friendly HTML)

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity

From “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era” (“The New Yorker”) comes a landmark manifesto about the genuine closing of the American mind.

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
By Lawrence Lessig
Edition: illustrated
Published by Penguin, 2004
ISBN 1594200068, 9781594200069
345 pages
preview

Download

Pirates of the Digital Millennium: How the Intellectual Property Wars Damage Our Personal Freedoms, Our Jobs, and the World Economy

Covers intellectual property wars: every side, the implications, the economics, the law, the ethics, the players, and the realities, including the findings of a 57-country digital piracy research project and survey and focus group research.

Pirates of the Digital Millennium: How the Intellectual Property Wars Damage Our Personal Freedoms, Our Jobs, and the World Economy
By John Gantz, Jack B. Rochester
Edition: illustrated
Published by Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2004
ISBN 0131463152, 9780131463158
294 pages

Download

Re-thinking Intellectual Property: The Political Economy of Copyright Protection in the Digital Era

Copyright laws, along with other Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), constitute the legal foundation for the “global knowledge-based economy” and copyright law now plays an increasingly important role in the creation of business fortunes, the access to and dissemination of knowledge, and human development in general.

This book examines major problems in the current IPR regime, particularly the copyright regime, in the context of digitization, knowledge economy, and globalization. The book contends that the final goals of IP law and policy-making are to enhance the progress of science and economic development, and the use and even-distribution of intellectual resource at the global level. By referring to major international IP consensus, recent developments in regional IP forums and the successful experiences of various countries, YiJun Tian is able to provide specific theoretical, policy and legislative suggestions for addressing current copyright challenges. The book contends that each nation should strengthen the coordination of its IP protection and development strategies, adopt a more systematic and heterogeneous approach, and make IP theory, policy, specific legal mechanisms, marketing forces and all other available measures work collectively to deal with digital challenges and in a way that contributes to the establishment of a knowledge equilibrium international society.

Re-thinking Intellectual Property: The Political Economy of Copyright Protection in the Digital Era
By YiJun Tian
Contributor Jane Winn
Edition: illustrated
Published by Taylor & Francis, 2008
ISBN 0415465346, 9780415465342
338 pages
preview

Download

The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom

With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today’s emerging networked information environment.

In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing—and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained—or lost—by the decisions we make today.

The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
By Yochai Benkler
Edition: illustrated
Published by Yale University Press, 2006
ISBN 0300110561, 9780300110562
515 pages
preview

Download