Introduction For more than three centuries, copyright has relied on a remarkably simple assumption. Whenever someone wanted to use a protected work, they would first seek permission from its creator or rights holder. If permission was denied, the law provided remedies. If permission was granted, the parties negotiated a license, agreed on compensation, and moved … Read more
Introduction: The Popular Story Is Backwards For the past three years, artificial intelligence has been presented as an existential threat to publishing. Headlines routinely warn that AI will replace writers, automate editors, eliminate journalists, and eventually render publishers obsolete. Every new model release seems to reignite the same question: if machines can generate text, what … Read more
Introduction When historians discuss colonialism, they often focus on territory, military conquest, and political control. Yet some of the most enduring consequences of colonialism were not physical at all. They were cultural. Empires exported languages, educational systems, religious ideas, social norms, and ways of understanding the world. Long after colonial administrations disappeared, their cultural influence … Read more
Introduction For most of modern history, copyright disputes were relatively straightforward. Authors fought against book pirates. Musicians challenged unauthorized copying of songs. Film studios pursued illegal distribution of movies. Publishers defended their rights against reproductions that threatened their businesses. These conflicts were often significant, but they typically remained within the boundaries of intellectual property law. … Read more
Introduction: The Death of Print Has Been Greatly Exaggerated For more than two decades, publishing has lived under the shadow of a prediction that seemed inevitable. First came ebooks. Then smartphones. Then streaming platforms. Then social media. Most recently, artificial intelligence entered the conversation. Each wave of technological change arrived with the same underlying assumption: … Read more