Digital Copyright

In 1998, copyright lobbyists succeeded in persuading Congress to enact laws greatly expanding copyright owners' control over individuals' private uses of their works. The efforts to enforce these new rights have resulted in highly publicized legal battles between established media, such as major record labels and motion picture studios, and upstart Internet companies, such as MP3.com and Napster. The general public is used to thinking of copyright (if it thinks of it at all) as marginal and arcane, and it hasn't paid much attention as legislation to expand copyright moved through Congress.…