Intellectual Property Books

Knowledge Power examines in a thorough and compelling way basic questions of who owns information and who has access. No one today, even children, can escape the significance of these questions. Children surfing the web, teenagers purchasing "fake" designer goods from street vendors, and adults submitting income tax forms face complex issues related to proprietary information, intellectual property, and privacy.

As a psychologist, I especially liked Marlin-Bennett's discussion of the flow of personal information. Her evaluation of the often porous boundary between public and private information is enlightening; the definition of confidential is shifting. The limitations on one's right to privacy are carefully and thoughtfully examined. The rules are changing and each person has a role to play in shaping the fine balance of ownership of and access to knowledge; therein lies the power.

The audience for this book is wide. The text is enlivened by examples from sports, music, science, business, etc. I strongly recommend this book to those who feel the tension between the rights of government and business versus those of the individual. You will become informed about rights and responsibilities in the Information Age and prepared to enter the debate.

What more can I say. Nothing else is adequate

Read this book, there is a lot of good advice in here.

The book goes through virtually every major legal issue that can affect the use of the internet. A good reference. These authors did a good job of putting it all in one place. Well written.

We used this text in a recent graduate seminar in Internet Law at the University of Kansas. I found it indespensible. Easy to read, well-designed, and written for both legal and non-legal professionals alike. A must-have for anyone who uses the Internet regularly for anything from publication to commerce.

Even though in the United States artists have never gotten a fair deal from patrons, movie companies and record companies, over the past decade, the situation for artists of all stripes has grown increasingly grave. The appearance of sites such as Napster and Kazaa openly encourage the theft of intellectual properties in the form of free digital files sharing. Though proponents of illegal music downloading may hail this development as striking a blow for the common person and lashing back against the scandalous pricing strategies of record companies, et al, it is in fact just another way of ripping off artists. Piracy under any guise is a slap in the face of starving artists everywhere -- and a huge blow against the important concept of intellectual property.

Artist rights attorney Amelia V. Vetrone has managed to create a brilliant short book that somehow manages to provide a sweeping overview of the issues involved as well as providing specific anecdotes of how artists have been victimized and how they will eventually be compensated fairly. While most books that approach this subject matter may be dry and hard to read, Vetrone's The Legal and Moral Rights of All Artists is very easy to read and of so much value to any creative person that it should be a mandated text in all communications, arts and legal courses. It is simply the "Old Tom's Cabin" of this generation. It points to the virtual "slavery" and mistreatment artists have received in the past and provides hope for the future when the media entertainment companies -- tired of the growing number of scofflaws pirating their music and films -- will enforce all provisions of the Berne Treaty (that the U.S. has already signed) to protect not only the very future of arts and commerce, but their short-sighted interests.

I cannot commend this book highly enough. To every musician or composer, I say buy a copy of this book -- $14 per paperback and $23 for the hardback version -- for it will save you tens of thousands of dollars. To every writer, director, actor or composer -- get a copy of this book and apply its wisdom to get a better contract from the entertainment companies. To every painter or sculptor, this book is your life's blood -- get it and memorize it.

The very fact that Ms. Vetrone had this book with three different major publishers only to have media parent company lawyers kibosh all three prior times speaks volumes about its value. It is powerful and it is destined to change the way entertainment commerce is conducted in this country.

I wish I could have everyone read it -- it is quite simply the biggest and happiest surprise of 2003-2004.

It is without a doubt the best investment you'll ever make -- and to say that, I really mean you will profit by its insights and comprehensive information. The fact that it is such an easy read should make it a very popular book, indeed.

The Librarian's Guide To Intellectual Property In The Digital Age by Timothy Lee Wherry (Director, The Robert E. Eiche Library, Pennsylvania State University) is a solid reference and informative introduction to the basics of copyrights, patents, and trademarks and written especially to serve the needs and questions of librarians. The issue of what constitutes fair use, modern-day disputes over file swapping services such as Napster, common misconceptions about patents, and a great deal more, is presented in easy-to-understand terms, in a text that sometimes adopts a question-and-answer format. The Librarian's Guide To Intellectual Property In The Digital Age is a highly recommended addition to professional and academic "Library Science" supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

Amazing. Anything, and everything an attorney, or even non-attorney, would want and need to know. Presented in articulate, organized fashion. Must-have for anybody looking into Trademark Law questions/issues/consideration.

Excellent book for linguists who find themselves involved in trademark litigation. Strong introduction to trademark law for linguists and useful case studies.

This is a fantastic in-depth book covering the ins and outs of media law. From "Fair Trial-Free Press Conflicts" to `Closed Courtrooms", `Gag Orders on the Media" it really shows the ins and outs about the media and the law, along with how the public can in essence become the jury in a sensational, high profile case.

An interesting, albeit a bit unsettling truth is in this book, I would like to quote comes from page 271:

"Even Alan Dershowitz, a prominent law professor who was a member of Simpson's `dream team' of defense attorneys, defended the role of the "dream team" in his book (Reasonable Doubts) by saying:
A criminal trial is anything but a pure search for truth. When defense attorneys represent guilty clients-as most do, most of the time-their responsibility is to try, by all fair and ethical means, to PREVENT [ my caps italic in the book] the truth about their client's guilt from emerging. Failure to do so...is malpractice."

If you have any interest in fair law, truth, the role and restrictions on the media, and how it all plays out, this book is really a fantastic resource. There is probably an updated edition, however this is the one I have read from cover to cover when it first came out in 2001, and really learned a lot!


Barbara Rose, Ph.D. author of Stop being the String Along: A Relationship Guide to Being THE ONE and Know Yourself
Editor, inspire! magazine