Copyright and Positive Freedom: Kantian and Jewish Thought on Authorial Rights and Duties
Copyright and Positive Freedom: Kantian and Jewish Thought on Authorial Rights and Duties, 63(4) J. COPYRIGHT SOC'Y U.S.A. 551 (Fall, 2016)
22 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2017
Date Written: 2016
Abstract
What can Kantian philosophy and Jewish thought contribute to our understanding of authorial rights and duties? Kant's support for protection of the autonomy of expression of authors and Judaism's for the creative freedom of authors – so-called primary and subsequent authors who make transformative use of prior works. The freedom put forth in those theoretical systems is a positive freedom. Positive freedom is, in both Kantian and Jewish thought, the capacity for morality, from which ensue one's right of respect, and also the duty to respect others. Positive freedom for authors underscores authorial rights as well as authorial duties of respect. When copyright is understood as positive freedom it is both deontological and with a telos of respect, thus bridging elements in the discord presumed between the instrumental Anglo-American copyright model and the deontological Continental droit d'auteur system.
Keywords: copyright, Kant, Judaism, jurisprudence, freedom, right, duty, dignity, respect
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