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Copy Me Happy: The Metaphoric Expansion of Copyright in a Digital Society

Larsson, Stefan LU (2013) In International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 26(3). p.615-634
Abstract
The article uses conceptual metaphor theory in order to analyse how the concept of “copy” in copyright law is expanding in a digital society to cover more phenomena than it originally did. For this purpose, the legally accepted model for valuing media files in the case against The Pirate Bay (TPB) is used in the analysis. When four men behind TPB was convicted in District Court of Stockholm, Sweden, on 17 April 2009, it to many marked a victory for the American and Swedish media corporations over online piracy. The convicted men were jointly liable for the damages on roughly EUR 3.5 million. But how do you calculate damages of file sharing? For example, what is the value of a copy? The article uses a model of valuing files in monetary... (More)
The article uses conceptual metaphor theory in order to analyse how the concept of “copy” in copyright law is expanding in a digital society to cover more phenomena than it originally did. For this purpose, the legally accepted model for valuing media files in the case against The Pirate Bay (TPB) is used in the analysis. When four men behind TPB was convicted in District Court of Stockholm, Sweden, on 17 April 2009, it to many marked a victory for the American and Swedish media corporations over online piracy. The convicted men were jointly liable for the damages on roughly EUR 3.5 million. But how do you calculate damages of file sharing? For example, what is the value of a copy? The article uses a model of valuing files in monetary numbers, suggested by the American plaintiffs and sanctioned by the District Court in the case against the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay (TPB), in order to calculate the total value of an entire and in this anonymous other BitTorrent site. These calculated hypothetical figures are huge – EUR 53 billion – and grow click by click, which on its hand questions some of the key assumptions in the copy-by-copy valuation that are sprung from analogue conceptions of reality, and transferred into a digital context. This signals a (legal) conceptual expansion of the meaning of “copy” in copyright that does not seem to fit with how the phenomenon is conceptualised by the younger generation of media consumers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Copy, Copyright, Metaphor, Conceptions, Pirate Bay, Legal conceptual change.
in
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law
volume
26
issue
3
pages
615 - 634
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:84881248055
ISSN
0952-8059
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
58d7bd5e-67db-4c46-b128-268768eba6af (old id 3242863)
alternative location
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11196-012-9297-2
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:47:08
date last changed
2022-04-20 06:14:11
@article{58d7bd5e-67db-4c46-b128-268768eba6af,
  abstract     = {{The article uses conceptual metaphor theory in order to analyse how the concept of “copy” in copyright law is expanding in a digital society to cover more phenomena than it originally did. For this purpose, the legally accepted model for valuing media files in the case against The Pirate Bay (TPB) is used in the analysis. When four men behind TPB was convicted in District Court of Stockholm, Sweden, on 17 April 2009, it to many marked a victory for the American and Swedish media corporations over online piracy. The convicted men were jointly liable for the damages on roughly EUR 3.5 million. But how do you calculate damages of file sharing? For example, what is the value of a copy? The article uses a model of valuing files in monetary numbers, suggested by the American plaintiffs and sanctioned by the District Court in the case against the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay (TPB), in order to calculate the total value of an entire and in this anonymous other BitTorrent site. These calculated hypothetical figures are huge – EUR 53 billion – and grow click by click, which on its hand questions some of the key assumptions in the copy-by-copy valuation that are sprung from analogue conceptions of reality, and transferred into a digital context. This signals a (legal) conceptual expansion of the meaning of “copy” in copyright that does not seem to fit with how the phenomenon is conceptualised by the younger generation of media consumers.}},
  author       = {{Larsson, Stefan}},
  issn         = {{0952-8059}},
  keywords     = {{Copy; Copyright; Metaphor; Conceptions; Pirate Bay; Legal conceptual change.}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{615--634}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{International Journal for the Semiotics of Law}},
  title        = {{Copy Me Happy: The Metaphoric Expansion of Copyright in a Digital Society}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2135950/4195688.pdf}},
  volume       = {{26}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}