Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Biopolitical Public Domain: The Legal Construction Of The Surveillance Economy, Julie E. Cohen
The Biopolitical Public Domain: The Legal Construction Of The Surveillance Economy, Julie E. Cohen
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Within the political economy of informational capitalism, commercial surveillance practices are tools for resource extraction. That process requires an enabling legal construct, which this essay identifies and explores. Contemporary practices of personal information processing constitute a new type of public domain — a repository of raw materials that are there for the taking and that are framed as inputs to particular types of productive activity. As a legal construct, the biopolitical public domain shapes practices of appropriation and use of personal information in two complementary and interrelated ways. First, it constitutes personal information as available and potentially valuable: as a …
Copyright, Commodification, And Culture: Locating The Public Domain, Julie E. Cohen
Copyright, Commodification, And Culture: Locating The Public Domain, Julie E. Cohen
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The relationship between increased commodification and the public domain in copyright law is the subject of considerable controversy, both political and theoretical. The paper argues that beliefs about what legal definition the public domain requires depend crucially on implicit preconceptions about what a public domain is. When considered in broader historical context, the term public domain has a specific set of denotative and connotative meanings that constitute the artistic, intellectual, and informational public domain as a geographically separate place, portions of which are presumptively eligible for privatization. This idea meshes well with the current push toward commodification in copyright. The …