Title: How to fix Copyright
Author: William Patry
ISBN:Cloth 2011, 9780199760091
Price: Cloth: $21.95
Imprint: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, 336 pages
William Patry, former copyright counsel to the US House of Representatives, and now the Senior Copyright Counsel for Google, “offers a concise and pithy set of solutions for improving our increasingly outmoded copyright system. After outlining how we arrived at our current state of dysfunction, Patry offers a series of pragmatic fixes that steer a middle course between an overly expansive interpretation of copyright protection and abandoning it altogether.” According to a paidContent Book Review by Jeff Roberts, How to Fix Copyright “has more economic and policy chops than others in the field and, thanks to Patry’s fine writing is immensely readable.”
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One Response to ATG Book of the Week: How to Fix Copyright
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William Patry’s book has several great points. As one of the very few people who is not afraid to dig deep to the foundational question that is “Why do we have copyright laws at all”, he has my profound respect. He correctly debunks many myths behind today’s mainstream justification behind copyright that it is supposed to balance the interests of creators with the interests of the public.
Because Patry’s book is based on erroneous conjectures, the big issue is, it consequently it concludes with extremely dangerous proposals. He deems that copyright laws are not about giving originators the right to c how their works are utilized. In his opinion, the purpose of copyright laws is to ensure the greatest benefits to the public while giving authors the barest minimum that would encourage creativity.
In my article, How Not To Fix Copyright – My Response to William Patry (http://mincovlaw.com/blog-post/how_not_to_fix_copyright) , I explain the flaws in Patry’s approach and provide many specific comments to extracts from his book.