This research investigates the transformation of copyright law for the digital age, particularly the development of technical copy protection strategies and their implications for authorship, technology, and cultural expression.

In the sense that copyright regulates who speaks, under what conditions, and what they say to whom, the shape of copyright law is a crucial question for communication and the circulation of knowledge. To the extent that the balance struck by copyright is being dramatically overhauled using digital technology, investigating such changes is vital to understanding the terms upon which information and knowledge will circulate, technology will be governed and innovated, and culture will be produced in the digital age.

The research has been completed and is being worked into book for for an April 2007 publication with MIT Press. This research includes investigating recent copyright controversies around file-trading and new forms of digital expression and the responses from industry and activists to these controversies, in order to reveal to users of these technologies the decisions be made to shape how they will work and what limits they will impose on information and knowledge.

This work, when published, will be useful leverage in policy discussions around copyright and technology, as well as informing the general public about debates cloaked in legal jargon and technical complexity. Several public talks, including one here on campus, will be timed to coincide with the book`s publication.

Information Technology and Digital Society

Summer research award, Digital Cultural Institutions Project, Social Science Research Council, 2004.