My initial reaction to Litman's Digitial Copyright was quite positive. I felt she adequately covered the very complicated nature of copyright law. Of particular importance is Chapter 3, “Copyright and Compromise”, where she provides a solid overview of how, not what, copyright legislation came into being. I found the methods somewhat surprising, although I should not, in that congress basically allowed the industry, along with the Library of Congress librarian, to decide how copyright should work. This method led to years of conferences between the invited stakeholders, followed by extensive backlash from the uninvited groups, such as composers, and piano roll and talking machines producers.
What is troublesome to me is not the fact that stakeholders were involved, after all, it does make sense to have at least some interaction or feedback from the affected parties. Yet, to have the entire legislation dictated by key stakeholders without some sort of guiding principle(s) is quite problematic. So, the idea of Fair Use was thrown in, just to complicate matters further.
This is where it was nice to also read the Fair Use portion of Carrie Russell's Complete Copyright: an Everyday Guide for Librarians. Russell's checklist of Fair Use guidelines are quite helpful, especially considering that due to the nature of copyright legislation, it is best for libraries, and related institutions, to follow fair use and hope it holds up if there is ever a question of copyright infringement. However, the best method is to not put anything on-line unless are permissions have been obtained. Easier said than done.
Still, these readings helped me to solidify my understanding of copyright legislation and fair use guidelines, not to mention the background of lobbying in Washington.
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