The darling conceptions of your time, or: why Galileo Galilei sings so sadly in the chorus

Abstract:
"The darling conceptions of your time, or: why Galileo Galilei sings so sadly in the chorus" portrays conceptions that are either embedded in copyright law or connected to the debate of copyright versus file sharing.



Conceptions such as property over intellectual phenomena, control over copies, theft, among others, are analysed and discussed in relation to the digital environment. The article does so by using the unusual grip of telling a story about the astronomer Galileo Galilei in the middle of a societal change of world-view, supported by the lyrics of a song throughout the article. The song is appropriately enough called "The darling conceptions of your time" and fills what the author calls a “meta-pedagogical” purpose by being released under a Creative Commons licence allowing it to be copied eternally, but never sold.



The author is a lawyer, a ph d student in sociology of law at Lund university, and a musician.