Culture War

31 Pages Posted: 7 Sep 2004

See all articles by Dan Hunter

Dan Hunter

King's College London - The Dickson Poon School of Law

Date Written: August 10, 2004

Abstract

Over the last ten years, much of copyright and patent has come under attack from those who suggest that capture by private interests has had a pernicious influence on public policy. In the related areas of telecommunication spectrum management and internet regulation there have emerged strong arguments for not allocating private property interests, and instead considering these domains as commons property. I suggest that, together, these developments form part of a culture war, a war over the means of production of creative content in our society. I argue that the best way to understand this war is to view it as a Marxist struggle. However, I suggest that copyright and patent reform - where commentators have actually been accused of Marxism - is not where the Marxist revolution is taking place. Instead I locate that revolution elsewhere, most notably in the rise of open source production and dissemination of cultural content.

Keywords: Cyberlaw, intellectual property, Marxism

Suggested Citation

Hunter, Dan, Culture War (August 10, 2004). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=586463 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.586463

Dan Hunter (Contact Author)

King's College London - The Dickson Poon School of Law ( email )

Somerset House East Wing
Strand
London, WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

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