The Digital Threat to the Normative Role of the Copyright Law

Abstract:     
Current digital technology has radically enhanced the ability to create digital copies of copyrighted works and to replicate, manipulate, modify, and transmit and distribute such copies on a massive scale. The intellectual property legal structure, particularly the United States copyright laws, while purporting to contemplate and embrace technological change, are strained in attempting to deal with current technological reality. The ease with which a variety of acts of large-scale copyright infringement can take place, and the frequency of such activity, call into question whether present copyright law can effectively serve a normative function. The article attempts to examine the role of law in this context.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 29

Accepted Paper Series