Book Review: Drafting Copyright Exceptions by Dr Emily Hudson

Today’s post links to a book review that Chris has just had published in the Journal for Copyright in Education and Librarianship for Dr Emily Hudson’s book Drafting Copyright Exceptions: From the Law in Books to the Law in Action. Chris writes…

Many readers of this blog will be aware of the work of Dr Emily Hudson, Reader in Intellectual Property Law the King’s College London. I was excited to hear about the publication of her book Drafting Copyright Exceptions last year because we knew from her presentations at past events that it was going to contain some pretty important stuff for institutional copyright geeks like us. I was therefore delighted to be asked by my masters supervisor Professor Tanya Aplin if I would be interested in reviewing the book and whether I could think of a suitable venue. It didn’t take me long to accept and follow up with the publisher (CUP), or to identify the Journal of Copyright in Education and Librarianship (JCEL) as the best venue for publication (check out our previous post from the JCEL editorial board).

You can read my (open access, CC BY-licensed) review on the JCEL website, but in summary I believe this book is essential reading for anyone involved in managing copyright in galleries, libraries, archives, museums and educational institutions. The only critical note in my review relates more to the accessibility of scholarship on a general level and the need to get the message out about the important insights in this book as widely as possible.

To that end I’m pleased to say that Emily will be discussing the book at the CREATe public lecture next Wednesday 24 March and that she’s agreed to run some deep dive online seminars on specific parts of the book for the CoOL SIG, which we’re planning for May this year. So, watch this space for more developments and I hope the review prompts you to look into reading the book.