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.
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.
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.