Music culture and the copyright industry move within a globalized context. What concepts of ownership and authorship become dominant thereby? And how do they contradict manifold creative practices worldwide? International treaties and trade policy-based legal systems reproduce colonial hierarchies. How can these power relations be de-colonized? Protective rights for indigenous groups’ traditional forms of culture and knowledge are accompanied by completely new approaches as well as old questions: What do community-based control and utilization models look like? How can expanded protectability be best reconciled with accessibility to the public domain?

With Ruth Okediji (Harvard Law School)