Copyright, the creative industries and the public domain

This chapter argues that copyright’s commodification of creativity has established a structure that, allied with aspects of the market for cultural goods and services, enables the domination of cultural output by the creative industries. The chapter argues that the primary tools of the commodification process have been the alienability of the copyright interest, the long duration of copyright, its horizontal expansion, its strong distribution rights, and the apparent demise of some of the most significant user rights. The consequent dominance of the creative industries over cultural output has had the effect of contracting the public domain and potentially restricting creativity.. The chapter focuses on the question of available legal strategies for preserving, or even reclaiming, a portion of the public domain order to address the negative effects of the commodification process.