The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is one of the most confusing--and widely used--dimensions of the law. By granting exclusive rights to publish, manufacture, copy, or distribute information and technology, IP laws shape our cultures, our industries, and our politics in countless ways, with consequences for everyone, including artists, inventors, entrepreneurs, and citizens at large. In this engaging, accessible study, Aram Sinnreich uncovers what's behind current debates and what the future holds for copyrights, patents, and trademarks.
This engaging and accessible study looks at the origins, evolution, purpose, and limitations of intellectual property. Detailing how intellectual property affects industry, politics, cultural expression, and medical research, Aram Sinnreich takes a multidisciplinary approach to uncover what's behind the current debates and what the future holds for copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Based on the notion that intellectual property law is not merely a property right but also a mechanism of cultural and economic regulation with significant consequences for democratic institutions, global businesses, arts, and the sciences, Sinnreich draws on media studies, communications, law, economics, and cultural studies as he provides a blueprint for understanding intellectual property rights and underlines the important and pervasive role that they play in everyone's lives.
"Engaging."--M. Herr, Choice

"[T]he book is precisely the kind of 'essential guide' you want for relative newcomers to a topic; it provides not only a mass of information about IP, but also an extensive bibliography . . . thus providing readers with a rich well of additional resources to visit."--MC Forelle, International Journal of Communication

"Professor Aram Sinnreich draws on his rich experience and research to provide clarity in The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property. . . .The author's focus deftly moves from clear, comprehensive overviews of intellectual property doctrine to pithy, entertaining details. Sinnreich's guide to intellectual property is, well, essential."--Harvard Law Review

"This book is impressively broad in its inclusion of the various social institutions and dynamics that shape intellectual property and its controversies."--Larisa Kingston Mann, Temple University

"Aram has brilliantly broken down all the germane issues of this very important topic--all in one compact volume. Highly recommended for anyone looking to get to the heart of what this is all about."--Pete Ganbarg, President, A&R, Atlantic Records

"Sinnreich masterfully--and entertainingly--shows that copyright, trademark, and patent policies aren't just for the lawyers, but matter for the future of culture, trade, international relations, technological innovation and, of course, the quality of memes."--Patricia Aufderheide, author of Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright

"Aram Sinnreich has given us one of the best tools to analyze the dizzyingly intricate world of copyright law as applied to well... everything. The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property reveals the underlying complexity of how intellectual property issues underline all major issues of our digital era. It offers a critical intervention for our hyper-complex 21st Century data driven world. Incisive and illuminating."--Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky

"The goal of any introduction should be to offer sufficient information to help readers understand the nature of a topic and sufficient insight to make readers want to find out more. Written in a lively and informal style, Sinnreich's The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property achieves both goals. Anyone embarking on the study of IP, and in particular copyright, would do well starting here."--Lionel Bently, University of Cambridge