Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Differing diversitiesSimilarly, at least one established scholar points out that the moral rights ofauthors have much in common with the legal protections inherent in a trademark,and can be understood as a kind of guarantee of quality or origin. 1 The pace oftechnological change has even led some scholars to call for a general rationalisationof intellectual property law. At least one author proposes a complete reassessmentof the concept of copyright, leading to a new design for copyright law thatemphasises structural clarity and simplicity. 2These developments in scholarship on intellectual property have profound implicationsfor cultural diversity policies. They suggest that the nature of copyrightprotection may be expected to change radically in the coming decades. The possibilityof fundamental change in copyright law, and the breakdown of traditionallegal distinctions among intellectual property rights, calls for greater study.Intellectual property and other lawThe tendency for intellectual property concepts to merge into one another ismatched by a growing realisation that intellectual property law has far-reachingconsequences which may not be immediately apparent to technical experts onintellectual property law. Indeed, many intellectual property matters impinge uponother areas of law and regulation. For example, intellectual property affects mattersof environmental regulation, constitutional law, and human rights. These connectionsremain poorly investigated in intellectual property scholarship.Research on the relationship between intellectual property and other areas of lawwill not only enrich the field of ideas available to policy makers on cultural diversity,but it will also bring about a better understanding of the social effects of intellectualproperty laws. From this perspective, the relationship between intellectual propertyand human rights may require the most urgent research treatment, since the humanrights implications of both copyright and patent laws appear to be extensive.Ultimately, an examination of the relationship between human rights and copyrightmay also help to establish cultural diversity as an important objective of internationallaw and policy. A recognition that intellectual property has an impact onhuman rights suggests that culture, itself, occupies a more central place in humancivilisations than it is traditionally assigned in the industrialised system of values.ConclusionCurrent developments in the international legal arena have profound implicationsfor cultural diversity policies. Intellectual property law plays an essential role indefining the administrative framework within which these policies must function.__________1. These considerations lead Vaver to argue in favour of an alternative model of moral rights, based onthe public interest importance of these rights, and perhaps analogous to trademark protection: see Vaver,1999.2. Christie (1995: 527-530) presents “a tentative framework for a new, simplified law of copyright.” Heidentifies the simplification of the subject-matter of copyright and the content of the right, itself, as beingtwo potential areas of basic reform and re-conceptualisation.150