This volume marks out a new theoretical direction in the study of copyright. The work directly challenges the dominant perspectives of policy markers and anti-copyright activists who see the creative power of the individual and distribution of property as the centre of the law. Vision in Copyright sets out a new perspective. It argues that copyright represents a moment in a longer and more complex history: that of composition. Composition is the 'other law' of subject matter. Far from being contained by copyright, composition is external to the law, ordering activities across the arts and sciences. Composition thus marks out the ground of copyright's potential and limits. Part I explores the tangled history of the concept of composition from ancient times into the modern period where it is first represented in European law. Part II examines the theoretical and practical developments in the 20th and 21st centuries, which demonstrate the inability of positive law to fully circumscribe and contain composition. In the concluding chapters the author discusses the knowledge economist's discourse on intellectual property and countervailing free market critiques of intellectual property. Deploying composition as a mode of analysis, the study suggests that political arguments over the role of IP in economic growth rest on different visions of composition. Vision in Copyright is addressed to the growing cross-disciplinary audience for intellectual property studies at the moment digital technologies and popular activism threaten the future viability of copyright. It will have acute relevance for those interested in the critiques and defences of copyright in contemporary society.
About the Author: Jaime Stapleton is an Associate Research Fellow of the School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London. He speaks regularly in the UK and Europe on issues relating to creative practice, law and political economy. His report - 'Study on the Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of Intellectual Property in the Creative Industries' - was published by the Creative Industries Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2007. He was part of the editorial board of the AHRC 'Primary Sources in Copyright (1450-1900)' project, where he advised on 15th and 16th century Italian copyright. Currently he is a core researcher for the AHRC 'Intermedia: New Media Art, Performativity and Authenticity' network, based at Tate Modern, where he advises on conceptual and legal implications of new media work.