Photographic copyright and the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in historical perspective

Cooper, E. and Burrow, S. (2019) Photographic copyright and the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in historical perspective. Legal Studies, 39(1), pp. 143-165. (doi: 10.1017/lst.2018.10)

Abstract

This paper provides an in-depth case study of the enforcement of copyright in photographs by certain rights-owners today: freelance professional photographers who derive income from the exploitation of photographic copyright. Referring to the theoretical framework of Guido Calabresi and A Douglas Melamed, the paper reflects on the implications of the case study for the nature and function of copyright in a specific context today. Bringing the experience today into conversation with the enforcement of copyright by professional photographers in past times (the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries), the paper notes the influence of the bureaucratisation of copyright exploitation (ie exploitation through picture libraries) on legal decision making in a particular forum today: the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court Small Claims Track. The paper concludes with more general reflections on the case study's implications for the courts and copyright policy-makers today.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cooper, Dr Elena and Burrow, Ms Sheona
• Authors: Cooper, E., and Burrow, S.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Journal Name: Legal Studies
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISSN: 0261-3875
• ISSN (Online): 1748-121X
• Published Online: 19 December 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 The Society of Legal Scholars
• First Published: First published in Legal Studies 39(1): 143-165
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
58948	1	Centre for Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise & Technology (CREATe)	Martin Kretschmer	Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC)	AH/K000179/1	LAW - CREATE