Copyright isn't really, as is usually suggestion, whatever that's periodically ‘extended’ to hide a brand new box or medium; really, copyright redefines itself at any time when its efficacy is challenged. whereas many components have contributed to this procedure, the main constant has been the demanding situations created via new applied sciences. The contributing authors construct upon this perception to teach that copyright legislations is, and has constantly been, a creature of know-how. every one bankruptcy specializes in a particular expertise or staff of applied sciences – images, telegraphy, the phonogram, radio, movie, the photocopier, the tape participant, tv, and computing device courses – emphasizing the alterations that every expertise instigated and the demanding situations and possibilities it created. possibly the main profound perception of this impressive e-book is the authors’ declare – ably supported in a chain of exciting chapters – that the way in which the legislations responds and reacts to new applied sciences is usually mediated by way of the political, social, financial, and cultural setting during which the interplay happens. for instance, those chapters describe and clarify how: statutory schemes of remuneration arose from mess ups to successfully police new types of piracy; continual litigation and lobbying via copyright proprietors forces legislatures and courts to plot new legislation; content material (e.g., sporting activities) generates new ideas of entry to pronounces; and ‘fair copying’ (e.g., via libraries) is the mandatory exception that proves the guideline. in addition to delivering perception into the ways in which copyright legislations interacted with outdated applied sciences once they have been new, the e-book additionally bargains vital insights into difficulties and matters at present confronting copyright legislation and coverage resembling the correct scope of copyright and the relation among copyright and the general public curiosity. With the vast views opened by means of those essays, teachers, practitioners and policymakers within the box will locate themselves good outfitted to accommodate the issues that may unavoidably be created via applied sciences within the future.