Stefan Larsson
Understanding copyright law in a digital society
 |
| Metaphors and Norms Understanding copyright law in a digital society |
At least two favourable things need to be said about my two supervisors when I
was researching and writing this thesis. Without the openness to new issues and
encouragement of almost any good or bad idea I have had through the years, on
the part of Håkan Hydén, I am not sure I would have become a researcher in
the first place. Håkan has continuously assisted me in lifting the gaze above the
details in order to see the grander structures of things. Then Måns Svensson
came along and brought with him stimulating injections of curiosity and
creativity as well as much needed discipline. Further, many of the good aspects
of the methodology and social scientific theory of this thesis owes a lot to Måns
and Håkan and their exceptional ability to grasp and analyse in an instant
whatever topic is thrown at them. Hence, significant importance is also to be
attached to the quite unexpected but very much desired funding from the
Knowledge Foundation for the project that we started in 2009. This has grown
into the Cybernorms research group, whose members provide me with some of
the necessary reason, challenge and encouragement for my being a social
scientist. Part of that group is Johanna Alkan Olsson, whom read a draft of the
thesis and provided with valuable comments. Additionally, I’d like to thank
Peter Mezei for reading and giving valuable comments on some of the legal parts of the thesis.
I feel gratitude towards the PhD candidates and friends on the
Department for Sociology of Law, such as Susanna Johansson, Helene Hansen,
Karl Dahlstrand, Lina Wedin, Anna-Karin Bergman, Lars Persson, Ulf Leo,
Rustam Urinboyev, Anna Piasecka, Marcin de Kaminski and the newer
acquaintances who made this time worthwhile, stimulating and simply more
fun. Per Wickenberg and Karsten Åström were especially supportive in my early
days as a PhD candidate. Lars Emmelin should be mentioned here too, for his
unspoken trust in my work, which has lead us to cooperate further on new
projects. To Lilian Dahl go my thanks for always keeping a careful eye on us all
and always lending me a hand whenever I get lost in administrative aspects of
my work. I should also mention some of the good people I met as a student in
Lund, because not only did they teach me how to have fun times as a student,
but they also inspired me to actually study hard and gain double degrees.
Without them, I would not have become a sociologist of law—so thank you
David, Mats, Simon and Daniel.
Lastly, probably the most important person to thank is my Anna, the
mother of our sunshine of a son Elis, because, in some ways, my work on this
thesis has been hers too. My worries, and my deadlines, have also in a sense
been hers too. Thank you for bearing with me.
Abstract
This is a compilation thesis in the sociology of law which analyses copyright law
in three steps; legal norms, social norms and the underlying conceptions in their
metaphorical representation. These three assist in answering the overarching
question of how do legal and social norms relate to each other in terms of the
conceptions from which they emanate or by which they are constructed, and what is
the role played by the explicit metaphors that express these norms? This question
looks for the underlying conceptions that construct norms, and does so by their
link to surface-based metaphors.
However the legal norms are studied explicitly in terms of examining the
European trend concerning copyright in a digital society. This includes the
most important legislation of the last 10 years, such as the Infosoc Directive,
the Copyright Enforcement Directive also known as IPRED, relevant part of
the Data Retention Directive, ACTA and the Telecoms Reform Package. This
European trend in copyright law is found to be resiliently path dependent also
when facing the challenges in a digital society. This trend is in the thesis
contrasted to the measured social norm strength, SNS, of unauthorised file
sharing before and after the implementation of IPRED in Sweden in 2009. The
repeated survey was conducted with approximately one thousand respondents
between fifteen and twenty-five years-of-age. The results show that although
unauthorised file-sharing to some extent decreased, in line with the manifest
purpose of the directive, the social norm that correspond to copyright remained
extremely weak. These results supports an undeniable gap between the legal and
the social norms of copyright, which in the thesis as mentioned is analysed and
outlined in terms of metaphors embedded in regulation, and the conceptions
these metaphors are based upon. The argument here is that how copyright is
conceptualised controls how it is regulated and, in this case, leads to lock-in and
dependence around certain metaphors that do not function well with the
conditions found in a digital society. The metaphor of “copies”, attached to a
right to the control over reproduction, is here seen as a central metaphor that is
analysed and related to, for example, metaphors of piracy, theft and trespassing.
These reveal a conceptualisation inherent in copyright of the immaterial stuff
that is protected as, in fact, tangible objects.
The thesis consists of four articles, published in or submitted to
international and peer-reviewed journals or anthologies, and an introduction
including theoretical and methodological considerations as well as an analysis
section. The thesis uses conceptual metaphor theory—the notion that some
metaphors come in clusters—as well as developing a conception theory in order
to analyse the lingual and conceptual patterns in law and mind and connect
them to norm theory in the sociology of law.
Keywords: Norms, metaphor, conceptions, skeumorphs, path dependence,
conceptual metaphor theory, paradigm, file sharing, copyright, IPRED,
InfoSoc, Data Retention Directive, code as law, generativity, online anonymity.
in three steps; legal norms, social norms and the underlying conceptions in their
metaphorical representation. These three assist in answering the overarching
question of how do legal and social norms relate to each other in terms of the
conceptions from which they emanate or by which they are constructed, and what is
the role played by the explicit metaphors that express these norms? This question
looks for the underlying conceptions that construct norms, and does so by their
link to surface-based metaphors.
However the legal norms are studied explicitly in terms of examining the
European trend concerning copyright in a digital society. This includes the
most important legislation of the last 10 years, such as the Infosoc Directive,
the Copyright Enforcement Directive also known as IPRED, relevant part of
the Data Retention Directive, ACTA and the Telecoms Reform Package. This
European trend in copyright law is found to be resiliently path dependent also
when facing the challenges in a digital society. This trend is in the thesis
contrasted to the measured social norm strength, SNS, of unauthorised file
sharing before and after the implementation of IPRED in Sweden in 2009. The
repeated survey was conducted with approximately one thousand respondents
between fifteen and twenty-five years-of-age. The results show that although
unauthorised file-sharing to some extent decreased, in line with the manifest
purpose of the directive, the social norm that correspond to copyright remained
extremely weak. These results supports an undeniable gap between the legal and
the social norms of copyright, which in the thesis as mentioned is analysed and
outlined in terms of metaphors embedded in regulation, and the conceptions
these metaphors are based upon. The argument here is that how copyright is
conceptualised controls how it is regulated and, in this case, leads to lock-in and
dependence around certain metaphors that do not function well with the
conditions found in a digital society. The metaphor of “copies”, attached to a
right to the control over reproduction, is here seen as a central metaphor that is
analysed and related to, for example, metaphors of piracy, theft and trespassing.
These reveal a conceptualisation inherent in copyright of the immaterial stuff
that is protected as, in fact, tangible objects.
The thesis consists of four articles, published in or submitted to
international and peer-reviewed journals or anthologies, and an introduction
including theoretical and methodological considerations as well as an analysis
section. The thesis uses conceptual metaphor theory—the notion that some
metaphors come in clusters—as well as developing a conception theory in order
to analyse the lingual and conceptual patterns in law and mind and connect
them to norm theory in the sociology of law.
Keywords: Norms, metaphor, conceptions, skeumorphs, path dependence,
conceptual metaphor theory, paradigm, file sharing, copyright, IPRED,
InfoSoc, Data Retention Directive, code as law, generativity, online anonymity.
Screenshot
Purchase Now !
Just with Paypal
Just with Paypal
Product details
Price
|
|
|---|---|
File Size
| 2,952 KB |
Pages
|
264 p |
File Type
|
PDF format |
ISBN
| 91-7267-335-4 |
Copyright
| Stefan Larsson |
Table of Contents
Contents 5
Foreword 7
Acknowledgements 11
Abstract 13
Part I – The book and the problem 15
1. Introduction. Conceptual battles in a digital age 17
Why copyright is of such vital interest 18
The gap (and the gap problem) 21
Metaphors we legislate by 24
Detecting power through legal metaphors 27
2. Situating the book 29
Why Sweden is of interest 29
Sociology of law and norm research 30
The four parts of the thesis 31
Research purpose and questions 32
An epistemological stance 34
Delimitations of this thesis 35
A brief presentation of the four articles 38
3. Copyright regulation 43
European copyright 46
Swedish copyright 47
Part II – Theory and method 49
4. Why metaphors and conceptions matter to the study of norms: a theoretical bridge 51
Norms, metaphors and conceptions 52
The concept of norms in sociology of law 53
5. Metaphors and conceptions 59
Figurative metaphors and metaphor clusters 60
The metaphorical mind, skeumorphs and embodiment 62
Conceptions 65
An epistemological stance on metaphors and conceptions 68
A model for legal metaphor analysis 70
6. Method 75
Studying law 76
Studying social norms 79
Studying metaphors in order to reveal conceptions 83
Part III – Results and analysis 89
7. The primary results of the articles 91
The European regulatory trend in copyright when facing the digital challenge 92
The social norms corresponding to copyright 93
Copyright and its metaphors 94
8. Conceptions in Copyright 99
The skeumorph transition of copyright 101
Copyrighted content as tangible and material objects 102
Copyright as a “system of incentives” 104
The solitary genius v. the principle of continuity 105
9. Consequences of the gap between legal and social norms 113
Generativity for the committed: (encryption) code as law 113
Generativity for law enforcement: monitoring the masses 115
Generativity for the industry: streaming in gated communities 117
10. A battle of conceptions in legal and social change 119
The path dependence of legal development 121
A battle of conceptions 123
The slow movement of conceptions, and embodiment as an explanation for change 124
11. Conclusions 127
Path dependence of copyright law 128
Social norms of copyright 129
Copyright and its metaphors 130
Conceptions in copyright 130
A suggested theoretical contribution 131
Legal and social change 133
References 135
Part IV – The articles 149
●▬▬▬▬▬❂❂❂▬▬▬▬▬●
●▬▬❂❂▬▬●
●▬❂▬●
●❂●
═════● ●═════
