Copyright as Information Policy: Balancing Creative Works and Technologies Used to Duplicate and Manipulate Them

When it comes to issues of online infringement, copyright policy protects the incentives copyright has long served to provide authors, and at the same time facilitates the emergence of innovative Internet services and equipment that might be used to duplicate creative work. In Copyright as Information Policy: Google Book Search from a Law and Economics Perspective [SSRN] UCLA law prof Douglas Lichtman uses the Google Book Search litigation as a lens through which to study copyright law’s efforts to serve these two sometimes-competing masters. From the abstract:

The Google case is an ideal lens for this purpose because both the technology implications and the authorship implications are apparent. With respect to the technology, Google tells us that the only way for it to build its Book Search engine is to have copyright law excuse the infringement that is today by design part of the project. With respect to authorship, copyright owners are resisting that result for fear that the infringement here could significantly erode both author control and author profitability over the long run. I myself am optimistic that copyright law can and will balance these valid concerns.

Recommended. [JH]