Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

The implications of international copyright lawfor cultural diversity policiesResearch position paper 5By Mira T. Sundara Rajan, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B., LL.M.D.Phil. candidate in Intellectual Property LawOxford UniversityIntroductionThe preservation of cultural diversity is a pressing international concern. The factorsthreatening cultural diversity have their origins in the pace of technologicaland social change in the international community. While contemporary socialchange has major ramifications for culture throughout the world, certain groupsare particularly vulnerable. The societies of developing and “transitional” countriesare subject to unique pressures generated by poverty and the processes ofmodernisation. Similarly, different kinds of minority groups within countries maybe especially affected. These include both immigrant minorities and minority culturesof long standing, such as aboriginal peoples, the Roma/Gypsy peoples ofwestern and eastern Europe, and regional minorities. 1Among these groups, international developments have generated new kinds ofsocial pressures, presenting them with unfamiliar challenges as well as unprecedentedopportunities for the preservation of their cultural identities. The pursuit ofdiversity in a number of key areas, such as the maintenance of languages, culturaltraditions, and social customs, increasingly depends on the capacity of affectedgroups to adapt to a powerful and pervasive international culture. At the sametime, the explosive growth of modern technologies is generating new possibilitiesfor the promotion of culture. New technology favours the development of culturalindustries, the dissemination of cultural knowledge, and the encouragement ofcultural exchange, at both the national and international levels. Policies whichseek to promote cultural diversity must allow vulnerable groups to meet the challengesof globalisation in the cultural domain, while enabling the fullest exploitationof new technologies which can contribute to their cultural vitality. In this process,cultural diversity policies must also succeed in establishing the concept ofcultural diversity as an internationally accepted norm in its own right.The legal environment is an important factor influencing the effectiveness of culturaldiversity policies. Law affects cultural policy in two distinct ways. First, thelegal system fulfils an important role in the implementation of cultural policies,__________1. Some relevant examples of culturally distinct, regional minorities are the Basques and Bretons ofSpain and France, and the Kurds of Turkey.135