The State of Copyright : The Complex Relationships of Cultural Creation in a Globalized World

This book seeks to make an intervention into the ongoing debate about the scope and intensity of global copyright laws. While mapping out the primary actors in the context of globalization and the modern political economy of information ownership, the argument is made that alternatives to further expansion of copyright are necessary. By examining the multiple and competing interests in creating the legal regime of copyright law, this books attempts to map the political economy of copyright in the information age, critique the concentration of ownership that is intrinsic in the status quo, and provide an assessment of the state of the contemporary global copyright landscape and its futures. It draws upon the current narratives of copyright as produced by corporate, government, and political actors and frames these narratives as language games within a global political project to define how information and culture will be shared and exchanged in the future. The text problematizes the relationship of the state to culture, comments on the global flows of culture, and critiques the regulatory apparatus that is in place to commodify culture and align it with the contemporary nation-state. In the end, the possibility of non-commodified and more open futures are explored. __The State of Copyright__ will be of particular interest for students and scholars of international political economy, law, political science, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, library sciences, and communication studies. It also will appeal to a growing popular audience that has taken an interest in the issues of copyright. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 8 Copyright Page 9 Dedication 10 Table of Contents 12 Acknowledgements 14 1 Introduction: the state of culture 16 The global political economy of information ownership 19 Copyright maximalism 26 The language game of intellectual property politics 28 Chapter overview 31 2 American intellectual property hegemony 40 For the good of the country: restructuring the American government to protect intellectual property 44 Reconfiguring bureaucracy 48 Congressional advocacy 52 Beyond America – intellectual property barbarians and intellectual property maximalism 60 Conclusion 64 3 Intellectual property piracy and the national security threat 73 Framing piracy as a national security threat 76 The securitization of intellectual property 78 Who is the enemy? From pirates and IP activists to terrorists 83 A fractured global debate 91 Conclusion 95 4 Intellectual property and the state: the territories of national culture 101 The Cold War and the clash of cultural policy 105 Cold War copyright 113 The state of national culture 119 So what is European culture anyway? 124 Conclusion 126 5 Exporting authenticity and the hybridity of culture 133 Hybridity and the nation-state 136 Conclusion 150 6 Critical copyright, cultural flows, traditional knowledge, and the future 158 The colonizing practices of copyright 161 Pathway one: preserving the past – neotraditionalism 168 Pathway two: neoliberal indigeneity 174 Pathway three: global indigeneity—hybridity and the (re)birth of authenticity 179 Traditional knowledge and the modern state 183 Conclusion 189 7 Mass culture and the culture of the masses: a manifesto for user-generated rights 196 The origins of user-generated content 197 Deconstruction of user-generated content 198 The “problem” of user-generated content 200 Toward a better copyright balance and a cultural bill of rights 212 Conclusion 214 8 Skipping through the desert of the real: copyright landscapes and the future of creativity 228 TRIPing through the desert of the real 231 Skipping through the desert of the real 240 Conclusion 250 Bibliography 256 Index 278 "This book seeks to make an intervention into the ongoing debate about the scope and intensity of global copyright laws. While mapping out the primary actors in the context of globalization and the modern political economy of information ownership, the argument is made that alternatives to further expansion of copyright are necessary. By examining the multiple and competing interests in creating the legal regime of copyright law, this books attempts to map the political economy of copyright in the information age, critique the concentration of ownership that is intrinsic in the status quo, and provide an assessment of the state of the contemporary global copyright landscape and its futures. It draws upon the current narratives of copyright as produced by corporate, government, and political actors and frames these narratives as language games within a global political project to define how information and culture will be shared and exchanged in the future. The text problematizes the relationship of the state to culture, comments on the global flows of culture, and critiques the regulatory apparatus that is in place to commodify culture and align it with the contemporary nation-state. In the end, the possibility of non-commodified and more open futures are explored. The State of Copyright will be of particular interest for students and scholars of international political economy, law, political science, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, library sciences, and communication studies. It also will appeal to a growing popular audience that has taken an interest in the issues of copyright."-- Provided by publisher