by Clinton Sandvick [[File:Democracy of Sound cover.png|200px300px|centerthumbnail|left|Democracy of Soundby Alex Sayf Cummings]] When most of us think about music piracy we focus on Napster and Bit Torrent, but music piracy is nothing new. Alex Sayf Cummings explores the history of music piracy during the 20th Century in his book ''[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199858225/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0199858225&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=ZGKORIDWQM3JUBSD Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century ]'' (Oxford, 2013). The Oxford University Press has just released <i>Democracy of Sound</i> in a new paperback edition. Alex Sayf Cummings is an assistant associate professor of History at Georgia State University. His work has appeared in the <i>Journal of American History</i>, <i>Southern Cultures</i>, and Salon, among other publications, and he is the co-editor of the blog <i>Tropics of Meta</i>. He is also the author of [[Media History Top Ten Booklist|Top Ten Media History Booklist]].
In our interview we discuss not only his research on music piracy, but his views on whether traditional books face the same fate as vinyl and CDs.
It seems to me that we might be recovering this idea of the public good when you look at recent activism against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), as well as the Supreme Court’s very good decision in the Myriad Genetics case. I’m not much of an optimist, but I think the book at least shows there’s a back-and-forth, a push-and-pull. That’s the idea behind the title—there was a “democracy of sound” in the sense that democracy involves a lot of friction, a lot of sharp elbows and contention. The fact that there has been a fight at all is a source of hope.
{{[[Category:Interviews]] [[Category:Media History]] [[Category:Music History]] [[Category:Legal History]] [[Category:United States History]] [[Category:History Interviews}} ]]{{ContributorMediawiki:Clinton SandvickUS History}} <div class="portal" style="width:85%;">[[File: Angels_of_the_Underground_.jpg|thumbnail|left|175px]]==[[Angels of the Underground: Interview with Theresa Kaminski]]==The Oxford University Press recently published Theresa Kaminski's Angels of the Underground: The American Women who Resisted the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II. Kaminski's book follows the lives of four American women who were stranded in the Philippines after Japan invaded during World War II. Publishers Weekly described her book as a "fast-paced true story" that documents how these women resisted Japanese occupation. {{Read more|Angels of the Underground: Interview:Alex Sayf Cummingswith Theresa Kaminski}}</div>
