Alex Sayf Cummings' Democracy of Sound explores and interrogates the technological, political and cultural forces that have shaped US copyright law in recorded music. While there is nothing original in the author's assertion that copyright, ‘has always been the creature of shifting political interests and cultural aspirations – always incomplete, always subject to change’ (p.3), his use of insightful and nuanced conceptions of piracy in the recording industry provides a unifying thread that runs throughout this work. Music piracy cannot be caricatured merely as a clandestine activity perpetrated by outlaws operating in the shadows for personal gain. Rather, piracy occurs in a multitude of forms: technological development (home taping), aesthetics (hip hop sampling), as an expression of political activism (1960s counterculture) and even as a mainstream corporate activity (YouTube). According to Cummings, irrespective of motivation a pirate is, ‘…always copying something produced by someone else without permission’ (p. 6).

The volume is divided into two chronologically organised sections, Part 1: ‘The Birth and Growth of Piracy, 1877–1955’ and Part 2: ‘The Legal Backlash 1945–1998’. Thomas Edison's development of sound recording in 1877 is the starting point for this book, with the author showing from the outset that the birth of recorded music and the birth of piracy of recorded music are contemporaneous events. While 1877 represents a convenient and altogether appropriate ‘year-zero’, the author avoids presenting a predictable linear narrative of technological determinism. Instead, this ambitious text demonstrates that the evolution and expansion of copyright in recorded music was, and is, far from straightforward or inevitable.

Part 1, ‘The Birth and Growth of Piracy’, examines how recording technology emerged into a commercial environment where, ‘Artists had to defend themselves against unauthorised use of their name and their recorded performances, while various companies experimented with different formats and paid composers nothing for the music they recorded’ (p. 6). The emergence of the now obscure historical curiosity that is the piano roll allows Cummings to demonstrate his talent for combining robust historical commentaries with a probing critique of the underlying interplay of cultural, political and legal forces surrounding these events (a quality the author repeats throughout the text). Why should a mechanical device (the piano roll) be subject to copyright? Why did composers and publishers enjoy copyright protection but artists and record companies did not?

In the case of the piano roll, significant court judgements (involving disputes between a publisher and a record company, White Smith v. Apollo (1908) and two record companies, Fonotipia v. Bradley (1909) relating to piano rolls produced contradictory rulings and the subsequent US Copyright Act of 1909 did not afford copyright status to recorded works (p. 19). Cummings convincingly argues that the ramifications of these events shaped US copyright doctrine and discourse for much of the 20th century. Indeed it was not until 1972 that sound recordings finally attracted copyright protection. By this time, Cummings writes, ‘…pressure to recognize all information, including sound and music, as copyrightable (and economically valuable) expression had risen to fever pitch’ (p. 89). It appears that in the second decade of the 21st century, an era of predominantly intangible music products and services, these largely economic imperatives continue to hold sway over policy makers.

Part 2, ‘The Legal Backlash’, investigates the maturing recording industry and reveals that increasingly organised and sophisticated bootlegging activities in the second part of the 20th century triggered the, ‘…political action and legal reforms that define the contours of intellectual property law to this day’ (p. 7). Cummings describes how the availability of affordable recording devices for average consumers facilitated the widespread bootlegging of mainstream rock performances (perhaps most notably Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes). Again the author illustrates the often contradictory motivations of pirates: some were simply fans eager to hear otherwise unavailable music; some were interested in commercially exploiting this material; while others viewed themselves as conducting ‘… a general insurgency against the establishment’ (p. 103) by undermining the profitability of the established recording industry.

The chapter titles ‘The Criminalization of Piracy’ and ‘The Global War on Piracy’ leave the reader in little doubt that the growing lobbying power of the recording industry and changing attitudes in Congress made no distinction between the aesthetic, commercial or ideological motivations of pirates. In essence this work documents the slow evolution of American copyright policy, ‘from a hands-off cultural policy that emphasised free competition (copy and compete) to a more aggressive stance that protected capital investment in the name of economic growth’ (p. 4). However, the author argues that, ‘the legal and political victories may look overwhelming, but popular scepticism about intellectual property continued to undermine the power of rights owners’ (p. 201). Here Cummings restates the central recurring theme: piracy has been, and continues to be, an endemic feature of the recording industry. While the recording industry may present the post-Napster era as an age of unprecedented piracy, Cumming's discussion demonstrates that this is just the latest instalment in a recurring cycle of ‘disruptive innovation’.

There is no shortage of existing academic texts tackling many of the themes explored in Democracy of Sound, so it cannot be considered ground-breaking in terms of its subject matter or scope. However, this can be considered among the most accomplished, comprehensive and refreshingly unbiased works in this canon. For some readers the discussion may linger too long on the minutiae of archival material relating to court cases or connoisseurship among collectors and bootleggers in the interwar jazz market, for example. However, even in these rich, involved examinations a strong and consistent narrative thrust is maintained.

To conclude, this volume represents a valuable addition to existing literature on a number of levels. As a self-contained history of copyright and piracy in the American recording industry between 1877 and 1998, it is among the most rigorously researched yet eminently readable scholarly texts to date. In the broader context, the author provides a probing, dispassionate critique of debates surrounding copyright, piracy, technology, corporate power and legal theory and practice that are as relevant in 2014 as they were 1877. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the book serves as an exemplar for scholars studying recorded music in other territories, under different legal jurisdictions, as to what is achievable in this area of enquiry.