An impassioned, darkly amusing look at how corporations misuse copyright law to stifle creativity and free speech

If you want to make fun of Mickey or Barbie on your Web site, you may be hearing from some corporate lawyers. You should also think twice about calling something "fair and balanced" or publicly using Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. It may be illegal. Or it may be entirely legal, but the distinction doesn't matter if you can't afford a lawyer. More and more, corporations are grabbing and asserting rights over every idea and creation in our world, regardless of the law's intent or the public interest. But beyond the humorous absurdity of all this, there lies a darker problem, as David Bollier shows in this important new book. Lawsuits and legal bullying clearly prevent the creation of legitimate new software, new art and music, new literature, new businesses, and worst of all, new scientific and medical research.

David Bollier (Amherst, MA) is cofounder of Public Knowledge and Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center, USC Annenberg School for Communication. His books include Silent Theft.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

PART ONE: Art and Culture: Use Only as Directed.

1. The Crusade to Lock Up Music.

2. Creativity and Captive Images.

3. Appropriating the People’s Culture.

PART TWO: Trademarking Public Life.

4. Trademark Owners Whine, “No Making Fun of Me!”.

5. The Corporate Privatization of Words.

6. Property Rights in Public Image.

PART THREE: The Copyright Wars against an Open Society.

7. The Theft of the Public Domain.

8. Stifling Public Dialogue through Copyright.

9. The DMCA’s Attacks on Free Speech.

PART FOUR: Absurd New Frontiers of Control.

10. The Quest for Perfect Control.

11. Intellectual Property Goes Over the Top.

12. Just Kidding or Dead Serious?

Conclusion: Reclaiming the Cultural Commons.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.