Copyright and Mass Digitization

Mass digitization of texts, images, and other creative works promises to unprecedentedly enhance access to culture and knowledge. With the electronic 'library of Alexandria' having started to materialize, a number of legal and policy issues have emerged. The book develops an extended conceptual account of the ways in which mass digital projects challenge the established copyright norms through the wholesale copying of works, their storage in cloud environments, and their automated processing for purposes of data analytics and text mining. As individual licensing is not compatible with the mass scale of these activities, alternative approaches have gained momentum as effect of judicial interpretation, legislative initiative and private-ordering solutions. This book queries the normative and policy implications of this newly emerging framework in copyright law. Adopting a cross-jurisdictional perspective, it concludes that lack of clarity as to the scope of authorial consent does not only bear the risk of legal uncertainty, but can also lead to the creation of new and not readily transparent monopolies on information and knowledge. In this respect, a new regulatory framework is outlined drawing from the insights developed in areas of law where the concept of consent in the use of data has been thoroughly elaborated. Illustrating how mass digitization unveils a number of unsettled theoretical issues within copyright, the book builds a sophisticated case that digital repositories in the mass digital age should be and remain fully-fledged public goods to the benefit of future generations.

Table of Contents:
1: Turning Copyright on its Head? 2: Technological Transformative Uses 3: Automated Text Processing and Data Mining 4: Orphan Works 5: Digital Monopolies 6: Integrity 7: Works and Data: Towards a Unitary Regulatory Framework

About the Author :
Maurizio Borghi is senior lecturer at Brunel University Law School and director of the Centre for Intellectual Property, Internet and Media. Prior to joining Brunel in 2007, he has been a researcher in cultural legal studies and philosophy at Bocconi University of Milan, and a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a founding member of ISHTIP, the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property. Stavroula Karapapa is senior lecturer in law at the School of Law, University of Reading and an advocate at the Athens Bar, specialising in Intellectual Property and Internet law. Her research interests focus on the intersection of law and technology with particular emphasis on copyright.

Review :
For those who are interested in legal issues surrounding digitisation, this book serves as a thorough and up-to-date resource. Overall, the book is well structured and clearly written to present information concisely and in a precise manner. It is a valuable contribution to the current debate on mass digitization projects. It will thus be of great interest to scholars and researchers in this area. ... Copyright and Mass Digitization offers a perceptive and in-depth contribution to the subject matter, explaining technical terms in a clear manner and providing a thorough and comparative analysis of controversial issues, which are exemplified through cross-jurisdictional case law. I have personally enjoyed reading this work. The book is carefully researched and innovative in its analysis of the various issues surrounding mass digitisation. In addition, its fresh and engaging prose and style make it a pleasure to read. The book Copyright and Mass Digitization which explains technical terms in a clear manner and provides a thorough and comparative analysis of controversial issues is valuable for academics and legal practitioners from both civil and common law systems, as well as members of the general public who wish to understand the complex and critical dynamics of mass digitization in the copyright environment.