I am posting this link to Part 1 of Adam Mossoff’s post on the history of copyright law because I think our copyright law is too restrictive. My interest in copyright policy can also be seen in my post “Copyright,” and from the link post that I am reproducing in full below: 

The Wonderful, Now Suppressed, Republican Study Committee Brief on Copyright Law

This is an excellent policy brief that is a well-written, fast, easy read. You can still see it thanks to Maryland Pirates.  Alex Tabarrok flagged it here. And Matthew Yglesias has a great discussion of the politics and the economic merits in his post “The Case of the Vanishing Policy Memo.” But on the economic merits, the policy brief speaks well for itself.