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Global Cultural Law and Policy in the Age of Ubiquitous Internet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Mira Burri
Mira Burri*
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Law, World Trade Institute, University of Bern. Email: mira.burri@wti.org
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Abstract:

Digital technologies and the Internet in particular have transformed the ways we create, distribute, use, reuse, and consume cultural content; have impacted the workings of the cultural industries, and more generally the processes of making, experiencing, and remembering culture in local and global spaces. Yet, few of these, often profound, transformations have found reflection in law and institutional design. Cultural policy toolkits, in particular at the international level, are still very much offline and analog and conceive of culture as static property linked to national sovereignty and state boundaries. The article describes this state of affairs and asks the key question of whether there is a need to reform global cultural law and policy and if yes, what the essential elements of such a reform should be. The article is informed by the ongoing and vibrant digital copyright and creativity discourse1 but seeks to address also the less discussed, non–intellectual property tools of the cultural policy package. It thematizes the complexity and the interconnectedness of different fields of policymaking, as various decisions critical to cultural processes are made by institutions without cultural mandate. While this problem is not entirely new and is naturally triggered by the intrinsic duality of cultural goods and services, the article argues that the digital networked environment has only accentuated complexity, spillover effects, and unintended consequences. The question is how to navigate this newly created and profoundly fluid space, so as to ensure the preservation and sustainable provision of culture. The article hopes to contribute to the process of finding answers to this taxing question by identifying a few essential elements that need to be taken into consideration when designing future-oriented cultural policy.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 21 , Issue 3: SPECIAL ISSUE: Thinking About Cultural Property: The Legal and Public Policy Legacies of John Henry Merryman , August 2014 , pp. 349 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2014 

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