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Todays copyright wars can seem unprecedented. Sparked by the digital revolution that has made copyright - and its violation - a part of everyday life, fights over intellectual property have pitted creators, Hollywood, and governments against consumers, pirates, Silicon Valley, and open-access advocates. But while the digital generation can be forgiven for thinking the dispute between, for example, the publishing industry and Google is completely new, the copyright wars in fact stretch back three centuries - and their history is essential to understanding todays battles. The Copyright Wars - the first major trans-Atlantic history of copyright from its origins to today - tells this important story. Compelling and wide-ranging, The Copyright Wars is indispensable for understanding a crucial economic, cultural, and political conflict that has reignited in our own time.

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"[F]ascinating and learned."--Louis Menand, New Yorker

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Peter Baldwin is professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University.

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