No Trespassing: Authorship, Intellectual Property Rights, and the Boundaries of Globalization (Studies in Book and Print Culture) - Softcover

Hemmungs Wirtén, Eva

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080208608X ISBN 13: 9780802086082

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2004

Synopsis

In this scholarly yet highly accessible work, Eva Hemmungs Wirtén traces three main themes within the scope of cultural ownership: authorship as one of the basic features of print culture, the use of intellectual property rights as a privileged instrument of control, and finally globalization as a pre-condition under which both operate. Underwritten by rapid technological change and increased global interdependence, intellectual property rights are designed to protect a production that is no longer industrial, but informational.

No Trespassing tells the story of a century of profound change in cultural ownership. It begins with late nineteenth-century Europe, exploring cultural ownership in a number of settings across both spatial and temporal divides, and concludes in today's global, knowledge-based society. Wirtén takes an interdisciplinary and international approach, using a wide array of material from court cases to novels for her purposes. From Victor Hugo and the 1886 Berne Convention, to the translation of Peter Høeg’s bestseller Smilla's Sense of Snow, Wirtén charts a history of Intellectual property rights and regulations. She addresses the relationship between author and translator, looks at the challenges to intellectual property by the arrival of the photocopier, takes into account the media conglomerate's search for content as a key asset since the 1960s, and considers how a Western legal framework interacts with attempts to protect traditional knowledge and folklore. No Trespassing is essential reading for all who care about culture and the future regulatory structures of access to it.

About this title

About the Author

Eva Hemmungs Wirtén is a professor of Mediated Culture in the Department of Social Change and Culture, Linköping University, Sweden.

From the Back Cover

'Eva Hemmungs Wirtén's fascinating account of the development of intellectual property law and the vicissitudes of its application will be of interest to all those concerned with the politics of cultural production and dissemination in an age of globalization. Hemmungs Wirtén raises troubling questions about the enclosure of the intellectual commons and the fate of the public domain in the twenty-first century.'

'No Trespassing is an original and important overview of intellectual property rights and the global political economy. Well grounded in both theory and history, Eva Hemmungs Wirtén has written one of the most important books on the subject in years.'

'I find it hard to think of another writer from the Humanities who deals so surely and confidently with intellectual property. No Trespassing is a fresh and original contribution to the field. Best thing I've read in ages.'

From the Inside Flap

'Eva Hemmungs Wirtén's fascinating account of the development of intellectual property law and the vicissitudes of its application will be of interest to all those concerned with the politics of cultural production and dissemination in an age of globalization. Hemmungs Wirtén raises troubling questions about the enclosure of the intellectual commons and the fate of the public domain in the twenty-first century.'

'No Trespassing is an original and important overview of intellectual property rights and the global political economy. Well grounded in both theory and history, Eva Hemmungs Wirtén has written one of the most important books on the subject in years.'

'I find it hard to think of another writer from the Humanities who deals so surely and confidently with intellectual property. No Trespassing is a fresh and original contribution to the field. Best thing I've read in ages.'

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080208608X
• ISBN 13: 9780802086082
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 238