Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century

When I began searching books on Amazon for our multimedia project, I decided to use search terms related to intellectual property and issues of copyright. I have always been intrigued by this topic and I feel it is incredibly important to understand copyright law in an information society. My search led to two books dealing with copyright, but in different periods of American history, and one book that analyzes our obsession with the present.

Without Copyrights: Piracy, Publishing, and the Public Domain by Robert Spoo

Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century by Alex Sayf Cummings

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now by Douglas Rushkoff

On WorldCat I discovered that Present Shock was in far more libraries around the world, but all 3 are here in the UW library system. Present Shock also garnered more result on Google Books, more members and popularity of Library Thing, and more reviews everywhere I went. However, I found an equal standard of praise in the reviews of all books.

Despite how fascinating Present Shock seems, I decided to leave it out and focus on my two books on intellectual property. Without Copyrights explains how early American government’s lack of concern over international copyright law shaped our present law and literature itself, while Democracy of Sound talks about how the development of popular music and ideas on piracy meant brought us to the copyright policy of today. I really wish I could review both, because they each deal with different aspects and time periods of copyright law, yet find common ground in many ways. In the end, I've decided to go with Democracy of Sound. Because its issues deal with the present, and since I’m a big audiophile, this book will be a great read. I wasn't able to any scholarly reviews other than what amazon gives, but I am still very excited to begin this book.