James Meese (2)

Argues that copyright law emerges out of and constitutes the three figures of the title, and that the user is often generated as a legal subject through association with or contrast to the author or the pirate. A lot of jargon and, as that previous sentence indicates, fewer actors than I would have preferred. Does nicely make the point that “authorship” is an operation of power, one that Richard Prince has access to while many faceless “foreign” pirates don’t; the difference show more between the author and the pirate can be in how much cultural power they possess, and this is true for businesses as well: Apple’s “Rip. Mix. Burn.” succeeded while Napster was litigated out of existence. The book also discusses the way that large copyright owners have used Australia as a testing ground for stricter copyright enforcement rules that, if successful, could be rolled out elsewhere. I also learned of Ramon Lobato’s studies of pirate DVD distribution in Mexico City, which found that some stalls “do more than simply sell in-demand films to customers at a price point they can afford. In some cases, they also function as important repositories of culture …. [One stall] gives life to orphan works that have been abandoned by studios that have closed down but continue to retain the film’s copyright, leaving the work with no authorized method of distribution…. Juan sources and copies obscure films … for locals and overseas collectors. He has even performed similar services for the Imcine, Mexico’s state-run film institute.” show less