Copyright, Property and the Social Contract


Book Description

This book provides international perspectives on the law of copyright in relation to three core themes - copyright and developing countries; the government and copyright; and technology and the future of copyright. The third theme includes an examination of the extent to which technology will dictate the development of the law, and a re-examination of the role of copyright in fostering innovation and creativity. As a critique, one chapter discusses how certain rights can create or reinforce social inequality under copyright royalty systems. Underlying these themes is the role the law of copyright has in encouraging or impeding human flourishing.




Discourse on the Sciences and Arts


Book Description

Rousseau attacks the social and political effects of the dominant forms of scientific knowledge. Contains the entire First Discourse, contemporary attacks on it, Rousseau's replies to his critics, and his summary of the debate in his preface to Narcissus. A number of these texts have never before been available in English. The First Discourse and Polemics demonstrate the continued relevance of Rousseau's thought. Whereas his critics argue for correction of the excesses and corruptions of knowledge and the sciences as sufficient, Rousseau attacks the social and political effects of the dominant forms of scientific knowledge.




SOCIAL CONTRACT.


Book Description




Law as Punishment / Law as Regulation


Book Description

Law depends on various modes of classification. How an act or a person is classified may be crucial in determining the rights obtained, the procedures employed, and what understandings get attached to the act or person. Critiques of law often reveal how arbitrary its classificatory acts are, but no one doubts their power and consequence. This crucial new book considers the problem of law's physical control of persons and the ways in which this control illuminates competing visions of the law: as both a tool of regulation and an instrument of coercion or punishment. It examines various instances of punishment and regulation to illustrate points of overlap and difference between them, and captures the lived experience of the state's enterprise of subjecting human conduct to the governance of rules. Ultimately, the essays call into question the adequacy of a view of punishment and/or regulation that neglects the perspectives of those who are at the receiving end of these exercises of state power.




The Making Available Right


Book Description

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} The right of copyright owners to make their content available to the public is crucial in an environment driven by access. The Making Available Right provides in-depth analysis of this exclusive right and offers insights on how we can approach the right in a more transparent and principled manner. This thought-provoking book brings together detailed analysis of the law and a broader consideration of copyright’s fundamental aims, and will be of interest to judges, practitioners and scholars concerned about how copyright deals with access going forward.




Rousseau's Social Contract


Book Description

If the greatness of a philosophical work can be measured by the volume and vehemence of the public response, there is little question that Rousseau's Social Contract stands out as a masterpiece. Within a week of its publication in 1762 it was banished from France. Soon thereafter, Rousseau fled to Geneva, where he saw the book burned in public. At the same time, many of his contemporaries, such as Kant, considered Rousseau to be 'the Newton of the moral world', as he was the first philosopher to draw attention to the basic dignity of human nature. The Social Contract has never ceased to be read and debated in the 250 years since its publication. Rousseau's Social Contract: An Introduction offers a thorough and systematic tour of this notoriously paradoxical and challenging text. David Lay Williams offers readers a chapter-by-chapter reading of the Social Contract, squarely confronting these interpretive obstacles. The book also features a special extended appendix dedicated to outlining Rousseau's famous conception of the general will, which has been the object of controversy since the Social Contract's publication in 1762.




The Lockean Theory of Rights


Book Description

This is a systematic, full-length study of Locke's theory of rights and of its potential for making genuine contributions to contemporary debates about rights and their place in political philosophy. Simmons refers extensively to Locke's published and unpublished works.




Rethinking Copyright for Sustainable Human Development


Book Description

This book explores the interface between copyright and higher education, and their complementarities for the advancement of sustainable human development. In its broader sense, the concept of human development is noted as a set of freedoms and human capabilities that are essential for human flourishing. Adopting a rights-based human development and capability approach (HDCA), this book primarily examines the relevant policy and legal flexibilities under the existing international copyright system, and their implications for access to knowledge required for creative innovation and higher education. Exploring the interfaces between copyright and higher education, this book argues that an unbalanced and restrictive copyright system impedes reasonable access to knowledge, and stifles creative and learning freedoms or capabilities. In effect, a restrictive copyright system results in serious ramifications for sustainable human development. In view of its findings, this book underscores the need for rethinking copyright and reframing its relevant flexibilities as users' rights that are vital for promoting creative and learning capabilities towards sustainable human development. Further, the book emphasizes the complementarities between copyright and higher education, and their joint roles for sustainable human development. Given its application of the HDCA to explore ranges of interlinked topics, this book will be of a great interest to researchers across the fields of intellectual property law, innovation, global development, human rights, and higher education.




Pluralism or Universalism in International Copyright Law


Book Description

In a world where powerful intermediaries like Google and Facebook are de facto regulators of the communication of copyright-protected works, the democratization of access to content has both substantially expanded the availability of new markets and dramatically increased copyright infringements. Does this mean that the long-sought ideal of a “universal” copyright regulation, which would harmoniously combine effective protection of intellectual creations with public interest goals, is a lost cause? Taken together, the contributions to this insightful and thoroughly researched book suggest that despite the prevailing labyrinthine mosaic of divergent national responses to fragmentation at international level, the foundations of a universal approach can be found in the interaction of regional, national and international copyright law instruments when responding to current and emerging technologies. Emphasizing the adaptation of copyright law to the needs of the information society, this volume provides critical approaches by leading copyright scholars on whether pluralism or universalism is the appropriate path to follow for the development of international copyright law. The authors deal with such issues and topics as the following: the application of core copyright law principles worldwide; authorship, rights and exceptions in the international copyright acquis; Internet copyright enforcement; global collective management of copyright; copyright contracts; database and design rights; intermediary liability; the global reach of the U.S. Fair Use doctrine; World Intellectual Property Organization’s role and strategy in international copyright lawmaking; and bilateral trade and investment agreements involving copyright. Specific evolutions and emerging trends in national and regional digital copyright laws are analyzed and assessed as they have developed in the European Union, the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as in several Asian and African countries. Throughout, attention is paid to compatibility with the Berne Convention, the perceived core of copyright law in the international copyright acquis, and the key question of the balancing of copyright law with fundamental rights from an international and comparative law perspective. As a comprehensive analysis of how core copyright law concepts and principles function in today’s fragmented copyright legal system, this book has no peers. Its detailed treatment of numerous specific instruments and regimes, as well as its insightful approaches to the future of international copyright lawmaking, will prove of immeasurable value to lawyers, judges, policy makers, academics and researchers working in the field of copyright law.




Social Contract, Free Ride


Book Description

This book provides a novel account of the public goods dilemma. The author shows how the social contract, in its quest for fairness, actually helps to breed the parasitic 'free riding' it is meant to suppress. He also shows how, in the absence of taxation, many public goods would be provided by spontaneous group co-operation. This would, however, imply some degree of free riding. Unwilling to tolerate such unfairness, co-operating groups would eventually drift from voluntary to compulsory solutions, heedless of the fact that this must bring back free riding with a vengeance. The author argues that the perverse incentives created by the attempt to render public provision assured and fair are a principal cause of the poor functioning of organised society.