The rapid diffusion of digital technologies since the 1970s has produced significant cultural change within industrialised societies and this dissertation examines the particular challenge that digital technologies and a burgeoning digital culture pose to copyright law. The hypothesis is that the international copyright regime, based on the private ownership of intellectual property, is being undermined by the collaborative and sharing dimensions of a networked digital culture. The argument is premised on evidence that digital culture is now so pervasive and so disruptive of traditional social and economic institutions that current copyright laws are no longer capable of managing the production and distribution of the knowledge, information and entertainment products that are fundamental to the operation of the global information economy. Ideological and cultural differences have led to conflict and ‘copyfights’ between the owners of copyright works and the digital creators who produce and share copyright works outside the commercial marketplace, and often, outside the law. Defending their legal rights, the owners have generally adopted a copyright maximalist approach. They have successfully argued for stricter laws to protect their valuable private property rights and have enforced the law against digital pirates and new technologies that they claim threaten their businesses and the orderly operation of the knowledge economy. The digital sharers have adopted a ‘copyleft’ approach. Demonstrating little respect for laws that inhibit digital creativity and innovation, and supportive of a public domain of accessible cultural works, they argue for less stringent legal controls over copyright works and for a new intellectual commons in which knowledge, information and entertainment products are shared, rather than privately owned. Analysis of the culture clash between owners and sharers and between their private and public interests demonstrates that the 21st century copyfights are divisive and expensive. This dissertation, as well as addressing the challenge that digital culture poses to copyright law, suggests possibilities for legal reform and opens up new terrain for further study into the question of who should own and benefit from the knowledge and information that form our cultural heritage. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/273614 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Spender, Lynne, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Centre for Cultural Research |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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