Copyright Class Struggle
Creative Economies in a Social Media Age

Employing law and philosophy of economics, this book explores how copyright shapes ownership of ideas in the social media age.

Hannibal Travis (Author)

9781316645031, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 October 2018

230 pages, 1 b/w illus. 2 tables
22.7 x 15.1 x 1.3 cm, 0.34 kg

'Travis has provided an engaging, fast-paced argument, setting out examples of how copyright has favoured one group over another … What makes this book interesting and worth reading is this creation of small stories and grand narratives around the nature and scope of copyright.' Phillip Johnson, European Intellectual Property Review

Earning an income in our time often involves ownership of or control over creative assets. Employing the law and philosophy of economics, this illuminating book explores the legal controversies that emerge when authors, singers, filmmakers, and social media barons leverage their rights into major paydays. It explores how players in the entertainment and technology sectors articulate claims to an ever-increasing amount of copyright-protected media. It then analyzes efforts to reform copyright law, in the contexts of 1) increasing the rights of creators and sellers, and 2) allocating these rights after employment and labor disputes, constitutional challenges to intellectual property law, efforts to legalize online mashups and remixes, and changes to the amount of streaming royalties paid to actors and musicians. This work should be read by anyone interested in how copyright law - and its potential reform - shapes the ownership of ideas in the social media age.

1. On owning ideas in our time
Part I. IP Disparities: 2. Authors as hired hands
3. Independent invention and its discontents
Part II. IP Liberties: 4. Hollywood's copyright exemptions?
5. The Beijing consensus
Part III. Pirate's Dilemmas: 6. The inquisitorial internet
7. Why we can't build universal digital libraries
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Intellectual property law [LNR], E-commerce law [LNCB2], Law [L], Political economy [KCP], Politics & government [JP], Social theory [JHBA]