Mun (2009)
Contents
Source Details
Mun (2009) | |
Title: | Culture-related aspects of intellectual property rights: A cross-cultural analysis of copyright |
Author(s): | Mun, S.-H. |
Year: | 2009 |
Citation: | MUN, S.-H. 2009. Culture-related aspects of intellectual property rights: A cross-cultural analysis of copyright. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 69, 2925. |
Link(s): | Definitive , Open Access |
Key Related Studies: | |
Discipline: | |
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About the Data | |
Data Description: |
this study to examine global IP protection, addresses some limitations of the empirical study and advocates historical approaches to the cultural problem in IP protection.
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Data Type: | Primary and Secondary data |
Secondary Data Sources: | |
Data Collection Methods: | |
Data Analysis Methods: | |
Industry(ies): | |
Country(ies): | |
Cross Country Study?: | Yes |
Comparative Study?: | Yes |
Literature review?: | Yes |
Government or policy study?: | No |
Time Period(s) of Collection: |
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Abstract
This study presented a critical investigation of the mainstream neo-liberal approach to global intellectual property rights protection. There is a widespread but incorrect perception in the contemporary intellectual property policy regime that ineffective copyright protection in developing countries is primarily an institutional problem deriving from the lack of economic capacity and jurisprudential systems. Arguing that the conventional policy regime offers only a limited account for global copyright protection, this study aimed to show that inadequate copyright protection is not only an institutional but also historically contingent cultural problem. For the purpose, the present study conducted two phases of investigation: (1) a cross- national data analysis of software piracy and (2) comparative historical analysis of authorship in England and China. The first study empirically examined the key determinants of software piracy in the contemporary international market. From multivariate statistical analyses of international data, the study attempted to identify significant factors facilitating software piracy. Special attention was paid to identifying the influence of national culture in software piracy when other institutional factors were controlled. The results showed that a combined outcome of multiple factors including national income, institutional capacity for property protection, in-group collectivist cultural practices, and attitudes toward international intellectual property protection explains the software piracy problem. The second study aimed to provide a more in-depth understanding of the historical linkage between copyright and culture. It traced the historical formation of authorship in English and Chinese print culture to examine whether and why there emerged contrasting conceptions of authorship between them. The findings showed that there was a distinctive historical divergence of material, ideological, and institutional contexts of print culture, which led to different authorship conceptions between England and China. This implies that authorship as the fundamental cultural basis of modern copyright law was not a natural and universal phenomenon inevitably arising from the printing press but rather historically and culturally contingent.
Main Results of the Study
- The conventional policy research suggested that strong IP protection leads to the overall
economic development. Considering various theoretical and methodological drawbacks in the conventional model, a number of critical scholars challenged the mainstream IP policy argument. They argued that IP protection is not a precondition of the economic development but an outcome of various national contexts.
- The level of IP protection responds to differences in the development of national economies: countries with high income
levels are likely to have stronger protection. The rationale for this assumption is straightforward: countries with a higher level of income are able to provide stronger protection of information products simply because they can afford legitimate products. Furthermore, since the legal enforcement involves large costs for judicial systems, policing and experts, depending on financial capacity, richer countries are expected to enforce the law better than poorer ones. For all these reasons, this study hypothesized a negative correlation between economic development and piracy rates.
Policy Implications as Stated By Author
The historical investigation of different authorship conceptions that reveal significant cultural differences in the contemporary copyright problem across long historical roots, these results hint that the debate in global IPRs may persist notwithstanding universalizing IP laws across different nations because cultural differences will persist. The findings from the present study raise several significant questions regarding how legal regimes should be conceptualized, how piracy itself is framed, and how policymakers might proceed to work with the communities of IP users and creators.
Coverage of Study
Datasets
Sample size: | 53 |
Level of aggregation: | Country |
Period of material under study: | 1968-1972 |
Sample size: | 1 |
Level of aggregation: | Company |
Period of material under study: | 1968-1972 |
Sample size: | 58 |
Level of aggregation: | Country |
Period of material under study: | 1994-1997 |
Sample size: | 951 |
Level of aggregation: | Organizations |
Period of material under study: | 1994-1997 |
Sample size: | 2 |
Level of aggregation: | Research models |
Period of material under study: | Not stated |
Sample size: | 2 |
Level of aggregation: | Country |
Period of material under study: | Not stated |