ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the concept of copyright—what it is, how it works, and what it achieves—as well as contractual licensing and how it works. The chapter focuses on both contexts—fire and ice—to see what unexpected middle ways might lie before us, suggesting that in fact there will be a middle ground if the copyright and information licensing worlds converge over time. Copyright prosecution, moreover, is difficult for a number of reasons and needs to take into account the indisputable statutory rights of users. Litigation under a license agreement, by comparison, is likely to be far simpler and far more favorable to the copyright owner. The concept of First Sale in the US Copyright Act has given libraries the ability to service and lend all the objects they buy. Book purchasers have the right to keep and preserve their books. Electronic information license agreements, on the other hand, tend to constrain rights in various ways.
