Edward Elgar Publishing New Directions in Copyright Law, Volume 4

This fourth volume in the series contains further exploration of the main themes considered in the first three volumes and brings together perspectives on copyright from law and legal theory, political economy, human rights, cultural studies and social theory. New Directions in Copyright Law, Volume 4, offers insightful contributions from leading commentators on a range of issues affecting the development and direction of copyright law. The volume is divided into six parts. In the first part, the theoretical framework of copyright law is explored through the concepts of the market place of ideas and the public domain. While a number of chapters address substantive aspects of copyright law reform, the second part of the volume contains a chapter that marries substantive questions with issues around the mechanics, limitations and possibilities of the reform process. In the third part, two chapters consider the problematic notion of paternity rights from contrasting disciplinary perspectives. The interface between copyright law and the burgeoning of new technologies is considered through a range of theoretical and methodological approaches. In the fourth part of the volume legal theorists address issues around open access, open source, free software, and the implications of network theory for the relationship between copyright law and the Internet. Moving away from the concerns of so-called 'high technology', the fifth part of the volume considers the equally fraught question of the protection of traditional knowledge and cultural property through an analysis of the limits of law. The final part of the volume, which deals with copyright's uncomfortable relationship with human rights, sees a return to issues around the new technologies with a focus on the political economy of open source software, and on the issue of information access and fundamental rights. Review 'The fourth volume of this excellent series does not disappoint. Spanning topics within and intersecting copyright as diverse as market power, paternity rights and cultural property, the book provides an interesting range of frameworks with which to consider various aspects of copyright law.'--Louise Buckingham, Copyright Reporter Acclaim for volume 1: 'The essays in these volumes are clearly written and of readable length. . . the latest installments in the New Directions series will be of particular use to researchers interested in traditional cultural expressions and trade law but other scholars of copyright and media will find papers to interest them.'--Daithí Mac Síthigh, Scripted About the Author Edited by Fiona Macmillan, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London, UK