The Impact of Copyright Law and Other Ownership Mechanisms on the Freedom of Inquiry: Infringements on the Public Domain

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Tomas Lipinski ◽  
Elizabeth Buchanan
2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 55-62
Author(s):  
Kgomotso H Moahi

This paper considers the impact that globalization and the knowledge economy have on the protection and promotion of indigenous knowledge. It is asserted that globalization and the knowledge economy have opened up the world and facilitated the flow of information and knowledge. However, the flow of knowledge has been governed by uneven economic and political power between the developed countries and the devel-oping countries. This has a number of ramifications for IK. The dilemma faced is that whichever method is taken to protect IK (IPR regimes, documenting IK etc) exposes IK to some misappropriation. Protecting it through IPR is also fraught with problems. Documenting IK exposes IK to the public domain and makes it that much easier to be misused. However, not protecting IK runs the danger of having it disappear as the custodians holding it die off, or as communities become swamped by the effects of globalization. The conclu-sion therefore is that governments have to take more interest in protecting, promoting and using IK than they have been doing.


2005 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Moore

Changes to Australian copyright law introduced under the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement will diminish the public domain, criminalise common copyright infringing practices and locally introduce significant portions of the controversial 1998 American Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This paper examines these imminent changes to Australian copyright law, with specific attention to the potential effects of the extended duration of copyright protection and the introduction of technological anti-circumvention measures. It argues that public domain-enhancing activities are crucial for sustaining cultural creativity and technological innovation, and discusses the potential role of the Creative Commons movement in establishing economically viable and legal alternatives to the current model of trade-oriented copyright reform.


10.1068/c24m ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 741-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Ravenscroft ◽  
David Uzzell ◽  
Rachel Leach

In this paper we discuss the incidence of actual and perceived victimisation in people's recreational use of nonmotorised shared-use routes. Using the findings from eight focus groups, we show that, despite encountering very few conflictual situations when on shared-use routes, the fear of accidents and assaults has a significant impact on some people in some environments. The findings lend support to broader theorisations about people's insecurity when outside the home, where fear is an increasingly systemic reaction to the ways in which understandings of the public domain are shifting.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Graeme W Austin

This article is an edited transcript of Professor Graeme W Austin's Inaugural Lecture, delivered in the Council Chamber of Victoria University of Wellington on 15 November 2012. Professor Austin was appointed Chair in Private Law in the Faculty of Law in November 2010. This lecture explores claims that in copyright law, the public domain is necessarily in opposition to proprietary rights, and suggests that in many contexts the incentives offered by copyright contribute to the vibrancy and volume of material that is available for downstream creativity and innovation. Drawing on his earlier work on the relationship between human rights law and intellectual property, Professor Austin's lecture advances the idea that cognisance of the human rights dimensions of intellectual property, including creators' human rights, should inform our understanding of the appropriate scope of the rights of copyright owners. The lecture concludes with a warning against the "Walmartization" of copyright.


This chapter deals with the theoretical foundation of copyright law and considers the various philosophical theories in this regard. The link between copyright law and the philosophical ideals that underpin its theory and interpretation is noted and considered within the ambits of the public sphere as proposed by Habermas (1974, p. 49). The discussion also includes an explanation of the public domain and focuses on the following theories in particular: the utilitarian approach, the public benefit theory, the natural rights theory, and the moral rights theory. The chapter concludes by comparing the theories and noting their alignment and differences.


Super Bomb ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 18-39
Author(s):  
Ken Young ◽  
Warner R. Schilling

This chapter is an account of the impact on U.S. thinking and policy of the first Soviet atomic bomb test. It ended the U.S. monopoly of atomic weapons—a development that some had foreseen and others had discounted as a possibility. An atomic Russia triggered fears of a “bolt from the blue” assault on U.S. cities. One reaction was to seek to prioritize U.S. air defenses. Another was to confirm the program agreed to that summer to accelerate the production of fissionable material for atomic bombs. The surge of anxiety also brought hitherto obscure speculations about thermonuclear physics into the public domain. It seemed apparent to some that the Soviet nuclear threat should be countered not by a multiplication of atomic bombs but by an American “superbomb.”


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