session 10. media globalization and its discontents.

After the hard work done in getting to know the law of the WTO, this session will be more dynamic and less legalistic.
It will explore the effects of globalization on media and how states have reacted upon these. We will look in particular at the tension between trade and culture, and at the concept and regulatory objective of cultural diversity. We will also contemplate whether digital media are differently created, distributed and accessed and if so, what the implications of this may be - in particular for promoting creativity and fostering cultural identities.

Reading materials
Burri, Reconciling Trade and Culture: A Global Law Perspective, JAMLS 41:2 (2011)
Anderson, The Long Tail
UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions

All readings will be of immediate help for those who will present during the interactive session on cultural diversity. They also give a good intro to the session on the challenges and opportunities for global media law.

Here are the slides for session 10.

session 11. challenges and opportunities for contemporary media law

The changing media landscape, locally and globally, brings with it certain challenges and opportunities for law and for media law in particular. As we could repeatedly see, it is very often the case that the toolbox of media regulation has not been yet adjusted (or not appropriately adjusted) to the changed (and changing) environment of 'old' and digital media, of convergence, of new patterns of business and consumer behaviour and new modes of cultural content production, distribution and access.
There is a host of topics that would qualify as falling under the broad category of challenges and opportunities to media law. We will only be able to tackle a tiny bit of those.
With the purpose of balancing the overall contents of the course and addressing some issues that were not sufficiently discussed until now, we would take up some of the themes in the domain of copyright and at the intersection of intellectual property and media law. We will pay specific attention to the processes of expanding copyright at the national, regional and global levels, and at the so-called copyright wars against the so-called piracy. In this context, we will discuss what the repercussions of expanded copyright may be and whether creativity and innovation as the ultimate goals of intellectual property protection are properly served. We will also look at alternative ways of protecting authors' rights such as the creative commons licence, as well as at initiatives that pursue to set limits to the ever expanding copyright.
A case that could well exemplify the current state of the debates is the Google Book Settlement and we'll make use of it to situate our analysis in the broader framework of media, access to knowledge and media regulation meant to serve the public interest.

Reading materials:
Neil W. Netanel, Why Has Copyright Expanded? Analysis and Critique

Optional:




Here are the slides of session 11.