[Commlist] New book: Who Owns the News?

New publication from Stanford University Press

*Who Owns the News?***

A History of Copyright

*Will Slauter***

*_http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/who-owns-the-news_*

"A gripping tale, mixing the high principle of Supreme Court opinions 
with the low subterfuge of editors concocting fake news to expose 
pilfering rivals. At a moment of peril for both the news industry and 
the culture that depends on it, there could be no better demonstration 
of our need for a historical perspective on the most pressing issue of 
our time." - Adrian Johns, University of Chicago

"This history of the idea and practice of trying to control news by 
treating it as intangible property is an important and hugely timely 
work—brilliantly researched and presented with real sophistication." - 
Lionel Bently, University of Cambridge

"/Who Owns the News?/ is a meticulous and fascinating history of 
attempts over four centuries to copyright news, but it is also much more 
than that. Will Slauter has given us a commercial history of journalism, 
which demonstrates that news is a public good that always needs to be 
embedded in a set of favorable arrangements in order to survive. It is a 
useful corrective to today's bromides about the promise of new forms of 
market support for news, at a time when its economic base has severely 
eroded." - Nicholas Lemann, Columbia Journalism School

You can't copyright facts, but is news a category unto itself? Without 
legal protection for the "ownership" of news, what incentive does a news 
organization have to invest in producing quality journalism that serves 
the public good? This book explores the intertwined histories of 
journalism and copyright law in the United States and Great Britain, 
revealing how shifts in technology, government policy, and publishing 
strategy have shaped the media landscape.

Publishers have long sought to treat news as exclusive to protect their 
investments against copying or "free riding." But over the centuries, 
arguments about the vital role of newspapers and the need for 
information to circulate have made it difficult to defend property 
rights in news. Beginning with the earliest printed news publications 
and ending with the Internet, Will Slauter traces these countervailing 
trends, offering a fresh perspective on debates about copyright and 
efforts to control the flow of news.

*Will Slauter* is Associate Professor at Université Paris Diderot and a 
member of the Institut Universitaire de France.



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