Leviticus 17–26, an ancient law text known as the Holiness Code, prescribes how particular persons are to behave in concrete, everyday situations. The addressees of the law text must revere their parents, respect the elderly, fear God, take care of their fellow, provide for the sojourner, and so on. The sojourner has his own obligations, as do the priests. Even God is said to behave in various ways towards various persons. Thus, the law text forms an intricate web of persons and interactions.
The nineteenth century witnessed a series of revolutions in the production and circulation of images. From lithographs and engraved reproductions of paintings to daguerreotypes, stereoscopic views, and mass-produced sculptures, works of visual art became available in a wider range of media than ever before. But the circulation and reproduction of artworks also raised new questions about the legal rights of painters, sculptors, engravers, photographers, architects, collectors, publishers, and subjects of representation (such as sitters in paintings or photographs). Copyright and patent laws tussled with informal cultural norms and business strategies as individuals and groups attempted to exert some degree of control over these visual creations.
'A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law' is an indispensable resource for scholars and students of medieval Scandinavia. This polyglot dictionary draws on the vast and vibrant range of vernacular legal terminology found in medieval Scandinavian texts – terminology which yields valuable insights into the quotidian realities of crime and retribution; the processes, application and execution of laws; and the cultural and societal concerns underlying the development and promulgation of such laws.
Whose Book is it Anyway? is a provocative collection of essays that opens out the copyright debate to questions of open access, ethics, and creativity. It includes views – such as artist’s perspectives, writer’s perspectives, feminist, and international perspectives – that are too often marginalized or elided altogether.
Across the world, developing countries are attempting to balance the international standards of intellectual property concerning pharmaceutical patents against the urgent need for accessible and affordable medicines. In this timely and necessary book, Monirul Azam examines the attempts of several developing countries to walk this fine line.
The Global Citizenship Commission was convened, under the leadership of former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the auspices of NYU’s Global Institute for Advanced Study, to re-examine the spirit and stirring words of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The result – this volume – offers a 21st-century commentary on the original document, furthering the work of human rights and illuminating the ideal of global citizenship. What does it mean for each of us to be members of a global community?
Professor Robert Rennie has been one of the most influential voices in Scots private law over the past thirty years. Highly respected as both an academic and a practitioner, his contribution to the development of property law and practice has been substantial and unique. This volume celebrates his retirement from the Chair of Conveyancing at the University of Glasgow in 2014 with a selection of essays written by his peers and colleagues from the judiciary, academia and legal practice.
Digital technology has made culture more accessible than ever before, but along with this technological democratization comes a paradoxical flipside: the norms regulating culture’s use – copyright and related rights – have become increasingly restrictive. Bringing together academics, librarians, entrepreneurs, activists and policy makers, this book argues that the Public Domain – the informational works owned by all of us – is fundamental to a healthy society. Essential reading for anyone interested in the current debate about copyright and the internet, this book opens up discussion and offers practical solutions to the difficult question of the regulation of culture in the digital age.
What can and can’t be copied is a matter of law, but also of aesthetics, culture and economics. The act of copying, and the creation and transaction of rights relating to it, evokes fundamental notions of communication and censorship, of authorship and ownership – of privilege and property. Exploring developments in the regulation of printing in Europe and North America from the fifteenth century onwards, as well as the specific evolution of rights associated with the visual and performing arts, this volume conceives a new history of copyright law that has its roots in a wide range of norms and practices.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge is best known as a great poet and literary theorist, but for one quite short period of his life he held real political power – acting as Public Secretary to the British Civil Commissioner in Malta in 1805. Meticulously researched, this book provides detailed analysis of the laws drafted by Coleridge, together with the first published translations of them. Drawing upon newly discovered archival materials, the authors shed new light on Coleridge’s sense of political and legal morality, showing how Coleridge’s actions whilst in a position of power differed markedly from the idealism he advocated before taking office.