Walled culture

Bought this book in epub format directly from the author when I came across a post on Mastodon and have been reading it whenever I have been sitting around waiting.

The book provides a good overview of the problems the digital world faces from copyright, old business models and reluctance to change. The publishing industry with it's lobbying is heavily criticized. It also provides viable alternatives for content creators to thrive in the digital world.

This easy to read book tells the history of copyright over the last few decades: How massive lobbying by the content industries resulted in many laws passed that extend copyright in multiple ways that are not suited for our digital age, and strengthen the penalties for infringing upon it. It covers all major areas like book digitizing projects, Open Access, streaming services, upload filters, and many more. If you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the developments in this field since the advent of the Internet, this is the right book for you. The only fly in the ointment for me is, that it hardly touches the abolition of copyrights at all, although the last chapter gives a clear example of how a creative industry with no copyrights—the fashion sector—can flourish.

Walled Culture can be a bit heavy going at times, but Moody does do an excellent job of highlighting the many areas in which copyright as it's currently implemented does more harm than good.

It's certainly true that this is something for which much reform is badly needed. I remain unconvinced, however, that Moody's preference to completely abolish copyright would prove to be quite the panacea he suggests.