"Steal This Music"

I had the pleasure of speaking at the Association for Recorded Sound Collections' conference in Seattle on Friday. In my discussion, about the state of copyright law for recorded sound in New York (a topic for later posts), I recommended a book for further reading about the impact of intellectual property law on music creation.

The book is Joanna Demers' "Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity" (University of Georgia Press 2006). While I don't endorse everything that's said in the book, for anyone who is interested in this issue, it gives an excellent overview of the issue. Especially for those whom are not lawyers, I think that it's very accessible.

This area is a critical example of the impact of the law on creativity and innovation. Give this a read, and I'd welcome any comments on it.