Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2008
Abstract
The copyright law on the books is a large aggregation of specific statutory provisions; it goes on and on for pages and pages. When most people talk about copyright, though, they don't mean the long complicated statute codified in title I7 of the U.S. Code. Most people's idea of copyright law takes the form of a collection of principles and norms. They understand that those principles are expressed, if sometimes imperfectly, in the statutory language and the case law interpreting it, but they tend to believe that the underlying principles are what count. It is, thus, unsurprising that the rhetoric used in copyright litigation and copyright lobbying is more often drawn from the principles than the provisions.
Publication Information & Recommended Citation
Litman, Jessica D. "Choosing Metaphors." In Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age, edited by C. Eisner and M. Vicinus, 13-26. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2008.
Comments
Originally published in Digital Copyright. 2nd ed., by Jessica Litman, 77-88. Amherst, N.Y. Prometheus Books, 2006.