Fiona Macmillan

Public Interest and the Public Domain in an Era of Corporate Dominance

Intellectual Property Rights is cutting edge in addressing current debates affecting businesses, industry sectors and society today, and in focusing not only on the enabling welfare effects of IPR systems, but also on some of the possible adverse effects of IPR systems.

Human rights, cultural property and intellectual property: three concepts in search of a relationship

In the face of increasing globalisation, and a collision between global communication systems and local traditions, this book offers innovative trans-disciplinary analyses of the value of traditional cultural expressions (TCE) and suggests appropriate protection mechanisms for them. It combines approaches from history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and law, and charts previously untravelled paths for developing new policy tools and legal designs that go beyond conventional copyright models. Its authors extend their reflections to a consideration of the specific features of the digital environment, which, despite enhancing the risks of misappropriation of traditional knowledge and creativity, may equally offer new opportunities for revitalising indigenous peoples’ values and provide for the sustainability of TCE. This book will appeal to scholars interested in multidisciplinary analyses of the fragmentation of international law in the field of intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions. It will also be valuable reading for those working on broader governance and human rights issues. Book description from publisher website at: http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/Bookentry_DESCRIPTION.lasso?id=13149

The World Trade Organization and the Turbulent Legacy of International Economic Law-making in the Long Twentieth Century

Book synopsis: International Economic Law, Globalization and Developing Countries explores the impact of globalization on the international legal system, with a special focus on the implications for developing countries. The onset of the current process of globalization has brought about momentous changes to the rules and processes of international law. This comprehensive book examines a number of these changes, including the radical expansion of international economic law, the increase in the power of international economic organizations, and the new informal approaches to law-making. The greater reliance on judicial and arbitral mechanisms, and the proliferation of international human rights instruments, many of which have a direct bearing on international economic relations, are also discussed. The contributors to this book are all prominent experts in the fields of international law and international political economy, drawn from both developing and developed countries. This insightful book will appeal to scholars and advanced students with an interest in international law, development studies, international political economy and international governance. It will also be an indispensable tool for practitioners – including members of leading international NGOs, international lawyers, political scientists and international development specialists.

What Might Hans Christian Andersen Say About Copyright Today

Book synopsis: The present state of copyright law and the way in which it threatens the remix of culture and creativity is a shared concern of the contributors to this unique book. Whether or not to remain within the underlying regime of intellectual property law, and what sort of reforms are needed if we do decide to remain within this regime, are fundamental questions that form the subtext for their discussions. One opinion that manifests itself in the book is that we should not reject present copyright law altogether, but rather find ways to fit it to the new digital technology, whilst others take a more sceptical view. They argue, for example, that the solution to copyright-related problems is simply to give up on copyright law altogether. The life and work of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen presents an ideal focus and/or point of departure, giving the contributors a historical and well defined framework for their discussion of the various problems in relating copyright to cultural creativity. Copyright and Other Fairy Tales will be of great interest to scholars of intellectual property from a diversity of fields including law, economics, and cultural studies, as well as historians interested in the link between cultural creativity and the role of copyright in promoting (or preventing) such creativity.

Is there voice without law? on the road

Abstract Using Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel, The Road (2006) and its cinematographic transformation of the same name by John Hillcoat (2009), this essay explores the relationship between expressive autonomy and law as a form of political and social organization. The essay attempts to understand what it means to be “without law” and whether such an absence implicates some other organizing principle or concept. For this purpose, comparisons are drawn between Hillcoat’s version of The Road and his subsequent film Lawless (2012). In order to consider the relationship between lawlessness and expressive autonomy, the essay focuses on the significance of the balance between love, hope and fear, which it argues characterises the dystopic world of The Road.

‘Are You Sure/That We Are Awake?’: European Media Policy and Copyright

This chapter argues that a number of the positive aspects of European media policy are compromised by its failure to take into account the seriously distorting effects of the global oligopolies, built on the back of the copyright monopoly, in the sector of media and entertainment production. Firstly, the chapter considers the articulation of an interlocking web of human rights-based objectives in the AVMS Directive of 2010 in the context of their relationship with the international copyright system. Subsequently, the nature of the international copyright system and the obstacles that it poses to the realization of these objectives are considered. Next, focus is on the critical significance of copyright to the so-called cultural industries, particularly (but not only) in the form of independent exclusive rights granted by the copyright system to investors, such as film producers and broadcasters, in the distribution of creative works. It assesses the operation of the markets for entertainment products in the light of the monopoly rights enjoyed by copyright holders. The way in which the copyright system, and the market that it sustains, interacts at the global and local levels with the values expressed in the AVMS Directive of 2010 is the subject matter of the chapter’s final part.

Cultural Diversity, Copyright, and International Trade

This chapter argues that the international copyright system, which is now embedded in the international trading system as a consequence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), has operated at least in relation to some types of copyright-protected cultural goods and services (as defined in the 2005 UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions) as a fetter on cultural diversity and self-determination. This effect has been produced by certain aspects of copyright law itself allied with aspects of behavior in the global market for cultural goods and services. The chapter analyses the extent to which these fettering effects have been exacerbated by other WTO agreements. It then considers whether or not the WTO system can be regarded as being in conflict with the emerging international regime for the protection of cultural diversity as embodied in the 2005 UNESCO Convention.

Altering the Contours of the Public Domain

Book synopsis: As technological progress marches on, so anxiety over the shape of the public domain is likely to continue if not increase. This collection helps to define the boundaries within which the debate over the shape of law and policy should take place.

Power and Resistance in the World Trade Organisation

The multilateral trade agreements concluded under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have proved, both in their inception and in the decade of their operation, to be remarkably controversial. The long Uruguay Round of trade negotiations that finally gave birth to the WTO and its accompanying trade agreements was the arena for bitter disagreements between the negotiating states. During the negotiations no issues were more contentious than those relating to agriculture, services and intellectual property. In terms of trade negotiations, both services and intellectual property were new topics of interest, and in the fullness of Uruguay Round time each spawned its own new WTO agreement. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) now governs the liberalisation of trade in services, while the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement) has put into place a regime for the protection of intellectual property rights. True to their contentious origins, both agreements have provoked concern and opposition. Due to its nature as a “bottom-up” or progressively liberalising agreement, concerns about the GATS relate largely to its potential in fuelling the power and reach of the multinational corporate sector.1 So far as the TRIPs Agreement is concerned, however, its potential to benefit powerful private interests at the expense of the public interest has already been well demonstrated. This is not only because it has become embroiled in issues about sustainable agriculture and food security,2 and is thus implicated in the more general debates over agriculture and trade. It is also because it has been at the heart of the public health crisis concerning access to anti-AIDs pharmaceuticals. The TRIPs Agreement has attracted a large volume of academic writing and is now the subject of a very good book, Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of