A Cultural History of Copyright: From Books to Networks

The book explores the rise of copyright as a legal institution and its impact on the economy of knowledge, from the age of print to the age of networks and disruptive technologies. It presents an in-depth philosophical treatment of the cultural history of copyright and addresses other institutions such as the social practice of promising in eighteenth-century Britain. The author argues that the transformations which modern law has undergone since the eighteenth century are inextricably linked to those which have shaped the modern subject to the core.

Format: Hardback
Length: 148 pages
Publication date: 28 November 2023
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This book delves into the rise of a legal institution that has dominated the economy of knowledge since its emergence in the heartlands of Europe during the dawn of modernity. It explores the place of copyright within the various conceptual transformations it has undergone over time, from the age of print to the age of networks and disruptive technologies. The author presents an in-depth philosophical treatment of the cultural history of copyright from its beginnings to the present, while also addressing other institutions such as the social practice of promising in eighteenth-century Britain. The main question the author seeks to answer is how legal institutions emerge and evolve over time, and how they are intertwined with the modern subject. The transformations which modern law has undergone since the eighteenth century are inextricably linked to those which have shaped the modern subject to the core. Law forms part of those great schemes of intelligibility that allow us to understand ourselves better, and we need to delve deep into the multiple layers of culture if we want to fully understand how the morphology and cultural archaeology of our legal institutions intertwine.

Weight: 412g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031468537
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023