Coding the Dictatorship of ‘the They:’ A Phenomenological Critique of Digital Rights Management

in Ethics and Phenomenology, eds. Mark Sanders and Jeremy Wisnewski (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012), 197-219

30 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2011 Last revised: 20 Dec 2016

See all articles by Gordon Hull

Gordon Hull

University of North Carolina at Charlotte - Department of Philosophy

Date Written: January 31, 2011

Abstract

Written for an anthology on ethics and phenomenology, this paper uses Heidegger’s discussion of artifacts in Being and Time to motivate a phenomenological critique of Digital Rights Management regimes such as the one that allows DVDs to require one to watch commercials and copyright notices. In the first section, I briefly sketch traditional ethical approaches to intellectual property and indicate the gap that a phenomenological approach can fill. In section 2, following Heidegger’s discussion in Being and Time, I analyze DRM technologies as exemplary of the breakdown of things as ready-to-hand; in particular, DRM is an example of what Heidegger calls "obstinacy." In section 3, I argue that this sort of concern generalizes beyond digital rights management due to its imbrication in ordinary, everyday experience. Finally, in section 4, I propose a framework for analyzing DRM in terms of our individuation from "the They," emphasizing how DRM undermines the functioning of "responsibility."

Keywords: Copyright - Digital Rights Management - Anti-circumvention - Phenomenology - Ethics

Suggested Citation

Hull, Gordon, Coding the Dictatorship of ‘the They:’ A Phenomenological Critique of Digital Rights Management (January 31, 2011). in Ethics and Phenomenology, eds. Mark Sanders and Jeremy Wisnewski (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012), 197-219, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1752395 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1752395

Gordon Hull (Contact Author)

University of North Carolina at Charlotte - Department of Philosophy ( email )

9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
145
Abstract Views
1,579
Rank
385,426
PlumX Metrics