While American intellectual property laws have not changed much on the surface, according to Lamoureux (multimedia and communication, Bradbury U.), Baron (a partner at he Chicago law firm of
Mandel Menkes), and Stewart (head of digital collections, Northwestern U. Library) everything has actually changed because the laws have not kept up with technological development; enforcement
is at best ineffective or at worst either non-existent or draconian; citizens don't understand (or agree with or follow) the law; the laws protect the vested interests of old media to the
degradation of the development of new technologies; and the laws cannot be efficiently enforced across geographic borders because the global interconnectivity of the Internet obviates most
strictures. In this book, they examine the intellectual property law/new technology landscape in chapters discussing copyright; the copyright issues of fair use, public domain, and orphaned
works; patent; trademarks; trade secrets; rights of publicity, privacy, and defamation; international intellectual property law; digital rights management; and intellectual property law in
virtual worlds. Generally, each chapter includes a legislative history, an overview of key court cases and decisions, an examination of more recent cases involving digital materials, and a
summary discussion of intellectual property law in that area as related to questions of new media practices. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
