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Media Rights and Intellectual Property

In order to gain a full understanding of how all forms of media are produced and utilized by individuals and audiences, it is essential to understand the different types of intellectual property rights (IPRs), their justification and their impact upon the practices of those involved in media production. IPRs affect what gets commissioned, broadcast, watched, hyperlinked and so on. Without IPRs, the entire structure of the industries that exist to create and distribute works of imagination would at least be radically different and, perhaps, non-existent. To many involved in intellectual property activism, the current ‘battle’ over the seemingly ceaseless expansion of IPRs will have a profound impact on all of our abilities to engage with culture. For example, as Haynes states, ‘How we engage and interact with the internet . . . is increasingly guided within certain parameters, many of which we remain blissfully unaware of’ (p. 114). Unfortunately, however, too few people appreciate this significance, including those involved in the academic study of culture. The majority of texts on the topic are targeted at those in law and there are few works that emphasize the cultural importance of IPRs or just how interesting some of the philosophical questions that the politics of IPRs can raise (just what is the ontological status of the voice of someone who just happens to sound like a popular singer?). For these reasons, the existence of Richard Haynes’s book, Media Rights and Intellectual Property, is a blessing. Haynes clearly states at the outset that the book ‘is not a book on legal practice and the law per se. Rather, it is about law and how it shapes certain aspects of the media industry’ (p. 4). Through an overview of the key philosophical issues and a series of case studies from different media industries, Haynes aims to give non-law students an overview of the role that IPRs play. Unfortunately, however, while the variety of case studies usefully displays the ways in which different industries operate, the book has a number of weaknesses that mean it does not achieve its aim of ‘fill[ing] the need for a clear and concise guide for media students not versed in the finer details of media law’ (back cover). The first problem with the book concerns the early discussion of the theoretical issues raised by intellectual property. The first substantive chapter is titled ‘Intellectual Property Rights and the Media’ but it is too short for its stated purpose, resulting in a confusing density that relies too much on outlining recent legislation in IPRs. These treaties and laws are extremely important, but without a sufficient introduction to the issues at stake, and how to understand them culturally, then details of the EU Copyright Directive or the DMCA become a complex legal list. There is no clear discussion of the idea of copyright as a bargain, or of authorship and/or moral rights, or even of fair use, even though these issues are important for understanding the case studies later in the book. There is no real acknowledgement that there are different types of user of intellectual property (individual consumers, other media companies) or the ramifications this might have. Significantly, given the title of the chapter, there is no explanation of any form of IPR other than copyright, even though patents, trademarks, design rights, celebrity R E V I E W S