Book Review of Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-2006

Journal Title

Journal of Media Economics

ISSN

0899-7764

DOI

10.1207/s15327736me1902_5

Abstract

Review Extract:

The entertainment industry is a mess today. Record sales have declined drastically in the last few years, consumers have lost respect for copyright laws and openly engage in unauthorized digital downloading, and many songwriters and artists do not receive their well-deserved royalties. If that was not enough, the entertainment industry has filed many rounds of lawsuits against technology developers and individual file-sharers, chilling innovation, alienating customers, and consuming resources that otherwise could be spent on improving products. The technological countermeasures for which the industry has lobbied also have reduced consumers’ access to entertainment products while creating unintended consequences that have drawn the ire of consumer and civil liberties groups. “How did we get into this mess? And how are we to get out of it?” (p. 6) are the questions inspiring Harvard Law School Professor William Fisher’s new book, Promises to Keep: Technology, Law, and the Future of Entertainment.

First Page

141

Last Page

145

Num Pages

5

Volume Number

19

Issue Number

2

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

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