Digital Copyright and the Two Culture of Communication On the Internet

Alexander Peukert, Goether University Frankfurt, Faculty of Law, Cluster of Excellence Normative Orders, has published Copyright and the Two Cultures of Online Communication in Intellectual Property Law and Human Rights, 3d ed. 365-393 (Paul L. C. Torremans, ed., 2015). Here is the abstract.

According to the prevailing view, the purpose of digital copyright is to balance conflicting interests in exclusivity on the one hand and in access to information on the other. This article offers an alternative reading of the conflicts surrounding copyright in the digital era. It argues that two cultures of communication coexist on the internet, each of which has a different relationship to copyright. Whereas copyright institutionalizes and supports a culture of exclusivity, it is at best neutral towards a culture of free and open access. The article shows that, depending on the future regulation of copyright and the internet in general, the dynamic coexistence of these cultures may well be replaced by an overwhelming dominance of the culture of exclusivity.

Download the chapter from SSRN at the link.