Office: 309 Pardee

Office Phone: (610) 330-5450

Email: phillipc@lafayette.edu

Course Description: Could you do the reading for this course on your cell phone? Texts are now being published onto iPods, for Kindles, for Blackberries-from Google Books to Wikipedia, information seems to be flowing freer than ever before.

But why, then, did J. K. Rowling sue a fan over publishing a guide she claims is plagiarism? Why is the Tolkien Trust claiming that New Line doesn't have the right to film The Hobbit? Who really owns the books we read, anyway? This course explores the technology of publishing and the ways that the technology has shaped the way we think about ownership, fairness, access to information, and even the value of culture itself.

Topics in this course will include publishing technologies from clay tablets to the present day; the development of copyright law and its impact on book publishing and adaptation; censorship and the rise of digital media; and the history of library technology and its implications for access to knowledge. Students will write on both historical and current issues in this course, emphasizing the relationship between technology and ethics across several information ages.