Copyrights and Copywrongs by Siva Vaidhyanathan, New York University Press,
$27.95, ISBN 0814788068
WHO owns and controls scientific papers: researchers or universities? Should
Napster be allowed to distribute other people’s music over the Web? Questions
such as these have propelled copyright scholars blinking into the limelight. But
just what rights should authors and artists have over their work?
Siva Vaidhyanathan sets out to argue for reducing copyright law to the
absolute minimum. He rejects the concept underpinning British and much American
law—that copyright is a property right. Logically enough, I suppose,
because property is perpetual and his goal is…
