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reader was concerned, once she bought a book, she got the same
rights to it as she got to any other physical object, like a potato or
a shovel. Of course, the reader couldn’t print a new edition, but
this had as much to do with the realities of technology as it did
with the law. Printing presses were rare and expensive: telling a
seventeenth-century reader that he wasn’t allowed to print a new
edition of a book you sold him was about as meaningful as telling
him he wasn’t allowed to have it laser-etched on the surface of the
moon. Publishing books wasn’t something readers
did.
Indeed, until the photocopier came along, it was practically
impossible for a member of the audience to infringe copyright in
a way that would rise to legal notice. Copyright was like a tank-
mine, designed only to go off when a publisher or record company
or radio station rolled over it. We civilians
couldn’t
infringe copy-
right (many thanks to Jamie Boyle for this useful analogy).
It wasn’t the same for commercial users of copyrighted works.
For the most part, a radio station that played a record was ex-
pected to secure permission to do so (though this permission
usually comes in the form of a government-sanctioned blanket
license that cuts through all the expense of negotiating in favor of
a single monthly payment that covers all radio play). If you shot a
movie, you were expected to get permission for the music you put
in it. Critically, there are many uses that commercial users
never
paid for. Most workplaces don’t pay for the music their employ-
ees enjoy while they work. An ad agency that produces a demo
reel of recent commercials to use as part of a creative briefing to
a designer doesn’t pay for this extremely commercial use. A film
company whose set-designer clips and copies from magazines
and movies to produce a “mood book” never secures permission
nor offers compensation for these uses.
Theoretically, the contours of what you may and may not do
without permission are covered under a legal doctrine called
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