Macmillan, Fiona --- "Copyright policy and the right to science and culture – Report 2015 (A/HRC/28/57)" [2017] ELECD 1434; in Belder, Lucky; Porsdam, Helle (eds), "Negotiating Cultural Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 181

Book Title: Negotiating Cultural Rights

Editor(s): Belder, Lucky; Porsdam, Helle

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786435415

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Copyright policy and the right to science and culture – Report 2015 (A/HRC/28/57)

Author(s): Macmillan, Fiona

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

From the outset, one thing should be clear: The Report of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights on Copyright Policy and the Right to Science and Cultureis fundamentally critical of the current international copyright system. By this I mean that it would take a particularly original approach to construing textual meaning to read the report as a lament against a system of property rights that has, perhaps, gone a little overboard from time to time and consequently requires some tinkering around the edges. Rather the depth of its critical stance makes it a novelty in the international law discourse around copyright, which generally tiptoes around difficult issues in its anxiety not to offend. And the influence of those likely to be offended should not be underestimated bearing in mind that they include a powerful lobby of corporate interests and an intimidating constellation of the leading states of the neo-liberal era, which have collectively advanced the interests of the corporate sector through the extension of copyright at the international level. The Report commences in a straightforward fashion, noting that despite the fact that they cover the same subject matter (science and culture) ‘two influential paradigms of international law – intellectual property and human rights – have evolved largely separately’ (para. 2). As private rights over intellectual property become ever stronger, the Report notes, the tension between these two regimes has increased (para. 3).