ABSTRACT
This chapter considers copyright and gender through a critical feminist frame. Part 1 surveys some feminist philosophical insights into copyright law’s subject matter (original, fixed expression) and its protagonist (the independent rights-bearing author). It explains that core elements of the copyright system thereby encode a masculinist understanding of both creativity and selfhood. Part 2 turns to the matter of proof, pointing to a growing body of evidence that seeks to demonstrate the gendered nature and implications of copyright law. While acknowledging its political and persuasive potential, this chapter problematises the empirical turn in copyright and gender research and policymaking. It cautions that a focus on measuring inequality and quantifying gender disparities could undermine the more fundamental and transformational project of unsettling the copyright status quo. Ultimately, it concludes that the feminist copyright agenda should remain centred around the radical critique of a system that produces inequality and exclusion by design.
Craig, Carys J, Copyright and Gender: Feminist Philosophies and the Politics of Proof (April 18, 2024).
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