Pauline Wong is the Assistant Director of IP Osgoode.
Our own Carys Craig, Associate Professor and Member of IP Osgoode, has recently released a book on copyright that has already made a splash among legal circles. It is entitled, Copyright, Communication and Culture: Towards a Relational Theory of Copyright Law (Edward Elgar, 2011).
On The 1709 Blog, Jeremy Phillips, IP blogger and head of the law department at the University of Botswana, reviewed Professor Craig’s book and stated that “a great deal of bright, sparkling thinking on copyright is emanating from Canada at the moment, and this is just the latest example of it.”
He goes on to comment on the publisher’s description of the book. He states that even though the publishers refrain from saying (once again) that this book will be useful to practitioners, “There is actually some significant discussion of case law, by the author and by those whom she cites, from which policy-oriented lawyers and judges can benefit.”
Professor Phillips closes by recommending, “Buy it for a friend you enjoy discussing copyright with, read it together and you’ll never be bored.”
Kate Sutherland, Associate Professor at Osgoode, reported on Professor Craig’s text in her blog on law.arts.culture. Professor Sutherland’s focus was on a discussion that Professor Craig gave of the book:
Carys Craig riffed on the cover image of her book to convey something of its content. It’s a book that squarely takes aim at the dominant conception of copyright as private property. In it, she argues that this conception misrepresents authorship and the process of cultural creation in ways which, when translated into law, lead to the stifling rather than the stimulation of creativity and expression. She proposes instead a relational theory to underpin a copyright law that would better serve our social and cultural values. I haven’t done her presentation justice with that brief description. I tried to take careful notes but soon gave up as pretty much everything she said seemed worth writing down. Of course, this bodes very well for the book! Suffice it to say that it promises to be a most thought-provoking book and I’m very keen to read it.
We are very excited for Professor Craig and expect more positive reaction will be forthcoming on her contribution to the discourse on the nature of copyright law.