Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants: Administering Culture: Law, State and Technology in the Remaking of Intellectual Property in Brazil

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project explores the implications of technological innovation and "digital inclusion" on intellectual property regimes and practices. The research will examine relationships among innovative forms of intellectual property protection, music, new technologies, and the state, by comparing two different technologically-assisted sharing practices in two arenas. The first arena is a popular movement promoting and distributing music "for free." The second arena involves a governmental administrative program that gives out "micro-multimedia studios" to marginalized cultural producers and mandates "open-source" licensing. The research involves interviews, a survey of production studios, archival data analysis, and ethnography. The results of this project will enhance our understanding of how intellectual property practices change under conditions of technological transformation and the economic repercussions of such changes. Further, the results will speak to the ongoing policy debate around technological inclusion, intellectual ownership and authorship.