Cultures of Copyright : Contemporary Intellectual Property

The symbols, signs, and traces of copyright and related intellectual property laws that appear on everyday texts, objects, and artifacts have multiplied exponentially over the past 15 years. Digital spaces have revolutionized access to content and transformed the ways in which content is porous and malleable. In this volume, contributors focus on copyright as it relates to culture. The editors argue that what «counts» as property must be understood as shifting terrain deeply influenced by historical, economic, cultural, religious, and digital perspectives.
Key themes addressed include issues of how:
• Culture is framed, defined, and/or identified in conversations about intellectual property;
• The humanities and other related disciplines are implicated in intellectual property issues;
• The humanities will continue to rub up against copyright (e.g., issues of authorship, authorial agency, ownership of texts);
• Different cultures and bodies of literature approach intellectual property, and how competing dynasties and marginalized voices exist beyond the dominant U.S. copyright paradigm.
Offering a transnational and interdisciplinary perspective, Cultures of Copyright offers readers – scholars, researchers, practitioners, theorists, and others – key considerations to contemplate in terms of how we understand copyright’s past and how we chart its futures.

Dànielle Nicole DeVoss (PhD, Michigan Technological University) is Professor of Professional Writing at Michigan State University. She is co-editor of Copy(write): Intellectual Property in the Composition Classroom (2011) and Digital Writing Assessment and Evaluation (2013). Martine Courant Rife (J. D., University of Denver; PhD, Michigan State University) is Professor of Writing at Lansing Community College. She serves on the CCCC- Intellectual Property Caucus and Committee. Her work has appeared in Technical Communication, Computers and Composition, Technical Communication Quarterly, and IEEE-Transactions on Professional Communication.