copyright

The institution of copyright is in ill repute these days. Characterizing it as a restriction on access to information, an abusive cultural despot, an obstacle to the freedom of artistic appropriation, and a monopolist of semiotics, the arguments do not fail to depict artistic and literary property as a barrier to artistic, political and social production of meaning and information. Regardless of whether such arguments are justifiable, one undoubtedly detects a general distrust of capitalism and globalization, in which copyright is an increasingly important legal tool protecting the production of cultural goods. It thus comes as no surprise that copyright receives its share of criticism in the context of this broader dispute. […] Anti-copyright sentiment is indeed rising from the ranks of authors who no longer see copyright as anything but a hegemony of financial interest that presents an insurmountable hindrance to freedom of creation.

(Dusollier 2003, 281-282)

Contributed by Caroline. View changelog.