Studying Norms and Social Change in a Digital Age: Identifying and Understanding a Multidimensional Gap Problem

Abstract:
The fact that the debate concerning copyright in a digital society has been both intense and filled with polemic conflicts ever since the late 1990s makes it clear that it is a most complicated issue to solve, or even grasp. Basically, both the legal and societal discussion and development are explicitly dependent on a greater understanding of the on-going processes surrounding copyright. This presents a well-suited point of departure for research such as the one conducted within the Cybernorms research group – both in terms of providing valuable insights into the field of sociology of law when it comes to understanding how to relate to the framework provided by digitalization in general and the Internet in particular, and in terms of providing more accurate knowledge and toolsets to legislators in related fields.