New Faculty Publication: Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century
Georgia State University Department of History’s Prof. Alex Sayf Cummings has recently published Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century (2013).
“In Democracy of Sound, Alex Sayf Cummings uncovers the little-known history of music piracy and its sweeping effects on the definition of copyright in the United States. When copyright emerged, only visual material such as books and maps were thought to deserve protection; even musical compositions were not included until 1831. Once a performance could be captured on a wax cylinder or vinyl disc, profound questions arose over the meaning of intellectual property. Is only a written composition defined as a piece of art? If a singer performs a different interpretation of a song, is it a new and distinct work? Such questions have only grown more pressing with the rise of sampling and other forms of musical pastiche. Indeed, music has become the prime battleground between piracy and copyright. It is compact, making it easy to copy. And it is highly social, shared or traded through social networks–often networks that arise around music itself. But such networks also pose a counter-argument: as channels for copying and sharing sounds, they were instrumental in nourishing hip-hop and other new forms of music central to American culture today. Piracy is not always a bad thing. An insightful and often entertaining look at the history of music piracy, Democracy of Sound offers invaluable background to one of the hot-button issues involving creativity and the law.” (from press materials).
Prof. Sayf is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, and specializes in the history of law, media, and the American landscape. His work examines how the ideological transition to an “information society” reshaped American political culture and economic policy, as well as the built environment.
His other publications include:
- “From Monopoly to Intellectual Property: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright, 1909-1971,” Journal of American History, 97, no. 3 (December 2010): 659-681.
- “Life in the Menagerie: David Crockett Graham and Missionary-Scientists in Sichuan, China, 1911-1948,” American Baptist Quarterly, 27, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 206-277.
- “Collectors, Bootleggers, and the Value of Jazz, 1930-1952,” in David Suisman and Susan Strasser, eds., Sound in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (2009)