Rimmer, M. "No Trespassing: A Book Review", The Australian Library Journal, August 2003, Vol. 52 (3), p. 305-306.

Abstract

Eva Hemmungs Wirten is an associate professor in Library and Information Science at the University College of Boras and Gothenburg University in Sweden... Her new book called No Trespassing is a fresh and original contribution to the field of intellectual property. It is the best thing I've read in ages. The book explores the nature of authorship in print culture, the use of intellectual property rights as a instrument of control, and the impact of globalization upon national cultures. The first three chapters are brilliant. In Chapter One, Wirten tells the story of how the French writer Victor Hugo was instrumental in pushing for the Berne Convention, the most significant multilateral international treaty dealing with copyright law. In Chapter Two, she discusses the politics of the translation of the literary bestseller Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Hoeg. In Chapter Three, Wirten provides a witty history of the Xerox photocopier, and the alarm and panic that it caused amongst the defenders of copyright law. The fourth chapter is a little flat - it veers off from its clever meditations on intellectual property into a dry discussion of the concentration of media ownership. The fifth chapter is good - although the critique of the World Intellectual Property Organisation inquiry into traditional knowledge could have been a little more pointed. Chapter Six is excellent - coupling litigation over Les Miserables and Gone With The Wind, and concluding with a stirring critique of the attempt to extend the copyright term in the United States.