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    Is copyright blind to the visual?

    Macmillan, Fiona (2008) Is copyright blind to the visual? Visual Communication 7 (1), pp. 97-118. ISSN 1470-3572.

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    Abstract

    This article argues that, with respect to the copyright protection of works of visual art, the general uneasiness that has always pervaded the relationship between copyright law and concepts of creativity produces three anomalous results. One of these is that copyright lacks much in the way of a central concept of 'visual art' and, to the extent that it embraces any concept of the 'visual', it is rooted in the rhetorical discourse of the Renaissance. This means that copyright is poorly equipped to deal with modern developments in the visual arts. Secondly, the pervasive effect of rhetorical discourse appears to have made it particularly difficult for copyright law to strike a meaningful balance between protecting creativity and permitting its use in further creative works. Thirdly, just when rhetorical discourse might have been useful in identifying the significance and materiality of the unique one-off work of visual art, copyright law chooses to ignore its implications.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): copyright, law, visual arts
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Law School
    Research Centres and Institutes: Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck Centre for
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 11 Nov 2009 17:20
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 16:48
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/864

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