Bound by Law?: Tales from the Public Domain

University of Oregon

"This wonderful, funny, and clever comic makes a very complex issue simple... I keep a copy in my desk." Davis Guggenheim, Oscar-winning director of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth "An indispensable guide for the perplexed (ain't we all!) in this postmodern information age." Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book artist "A knockout comic book about fair use and filmmaking. Bound by Law? riffs expertly on classic comic styles, from the Crypt Keeper to Mad Magazine, superheroes to Understanding Comics, and lays out a sparkling, witty, moving and informative story about how the eroded public domain has made documentary filmmaking into a minefield." Cory Doctorow, co-editor of the blog BoingBoing.net "Bound by Law? stars Akiko, a curvaceous, muscular filmmaker (think Tomb Raider's Lara Croft with spiky hair) planning to shoot a documentary about a day in the life of New York City... [It] translates law into plain English and abstract ideas into 'visual metaphors.' So the comic's heroine, Akiko, brandishes a laser gun as she fends off a cyclopean 'Rights Monster'--all the while learning copyright law basics, including the line between fair use and copyright infringement."Brandt Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal online