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The Work and Play of the Mind in the Information Age pp 13–46Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Private: Whose Equilibrium?

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Part of the book series: Frontiers of Globalization ((FOG))

Abstract

In the late 1990s neo-liberals boldly proclaimed two victories: that the free market had become the pre-eminent method of resource allocation and that liberal democracy had risen to be the only viable mode of political organization. Conceptually connecting these victories was a belief that the aspirations and rationality of this political project played itself out, naturally, without the heavy hand of state regulatory intervention. The promise was market-based equilibrium and political stability. The whole of humankind was on track to be incorporated into a completely interlinked, democracy-inducing, global marketplace. This chapter offers an account of the ways in which the production and ownership of the work and play of the mind comes to be imbricated within this history of economic neo-liberalism. This result was the extension of private property and the free market into a wider range of global social spaces. I call this the propertyscape of “Information Privatization.”

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kalantzis-Cope.

  2. 2.

    International Intellectual Property Alliance, “New Economic Study Shows U.S Copyright Industries Pass $278 Billion Mark and Account for over 3.5 Million U.S Jobs,” (Washington D.C.: International Intellectual Property Alliance, 1996).

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    See: Peter Drahos, Braithwaite, John, Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003); Xuan Li, Correa, Carlos, ed. Intellectual Property Enforcement: International Perspectives (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2009); Keith Maskus, Intellectual Property Rights in the Global Economy (Washington D.C.: Institute for International Economic, 2000); Christopher May, Sell, Susan, Intellectual Property Rights: A Critical History, ed. Renee Marlin-Bennett, Ipolitics: Global Challenges in the Information Age (London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006).

  5. 5.

    Sell. p. 96.

  6. 6.

    Drahos. p. 36.

  7. 7.

    World Trade Organization, “Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights,” World Trade Organization, http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/t_agm0_e.htm.

  8. 8.

    http://www.mpaa.org/contentprotection.

  9. 9.

    World Trade Organization.

  10. 10.

    Business Software Alliance, “About Us,” Business Software Alliance, http://www.bsa.org/about-bsa.

  11. 11.

    World Trade Organization. Article 3(1).

  12. 12.

    Ibid. Footnote to Article 42.

  13. 13.

    Ibid. Article 41 (5).

  14. 14.

    Ibid. Article 61.

  15. 15.

    Christopher May, The World Intellectual Property Agenda: Resurgence and the Development Agenda (New York: Routledge, 2007).

  16. 16.

    Keith Maskus, Reichman, Jerome, “The Concept of Public Goods in the Expanding Knowledge Economy,” in International Public Goods and Transfer of Technology under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime, ed. Keith Maskus, Reichman, Jerome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). p. 5.

  17. 17.

    Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Sampath, Padmashree, Latecomer Development: Innovation and Knowledge for Economic Growth (New York: Routledge, 2010).

  18. 18.

    Carolyn Deere, The Implementation Game: The Trips Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property Reform in Developing Countries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). p. 2.

  19. 19.

    For a detailed analysis of these ‘flexibilities’ see: Charles Collins-Chase, “The Case against Trips-Plus Protection in Developing Countries Facing Aids Epidemics,” University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 29, no. 3 (2008).

  20. 20.

    International Intellectual Property Alliance, “About the International Intellectual Property Alliance,” International Intellectual Property Alliance, http://www.iipa.com/aboutiipa.html.

  21. 21.

    For a detailed explanation of this strategy see: John Braithwaite, Drahos, Peter, Global Business Regulation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). Chapter 24.

  22. 22.

    Susan Sell, K., “Intellectual Property and the Doha Development Agenda “in The WTO after Hong Kong: Progress in, and Prospects for, the Doha Development Agenda, ed. Donna Lee, Wilkinson, Rorden, (London: Routledge, 2007). p. 57.

  23. 23.

    May. p. 30.

  24. 24.

    Sisule Musungu, Dutfield, Graham, “Multilateral Agreements and a Trips-Plus World: The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO),” in TRIPS Issue Papers, ed. Geoff Tansey (Geneva: Quaker United Nations Office, 2003). p. 11.

  25. 25.

    May. p. 34.

  26. 26.

    Ibid. p. 34.

  27. 27.

    Musungu. p. 2.

  28. 28.

    Creative Economy Report. p. xxiii.

  29. 29.

    World Customs Organization, “Global Congress Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy: Outcomes and Recommendations,” World Customs Organization, http://www.ccapcongress.net/Recommendations.htm.

  30. 30.

    INTERPOL, “Database on International Intellectual Property,” INTERPOL, http://www.interpol.int/Public/FinancialCrime/IntellectualProperty/DIIP/Default.asp.

  31. 31.

    Ruth Okediji, “Public Welfare and the Role of the WTO: Reconsidering the Trips Agreement,” Emory International Law Review 17, no. 2 (2003). p. 822.

  32. 32.

    Peter Drahos, “Bits and Bibs: Bilateralism in Intellectual Property,” The Journal of World Intellectual Property 4 (2001). p. 800.

  33. 33.

    Christopher May, The Global Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights: The New Enclosures (London: Routledge, 2010). P. 10.

  34. 34.

    Lokman Tsui, “An Inadequate Metaphor: The Great Firewall and Chinese Internet Censorship,” Global Dialogue 9, no. 1 (2007). p. 61.

  35. 35.

    Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, “The Internet in China,” Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-06/08/c_13339232.htm.

  36. 36.

    Randolph Kluver, “Us and Chinese Policy Expectations of the Internet,” China Information 19 (2005). p. 303.

  37. 37.

    Christopher Hughes, R., “China and the Globalization of ICTS: Implications for International Relations,” New Media & Society 4, no. 2 (2002).

  38. 38.

    The World Bank, “2010 World Development Indicators” (Washington D.C.: The World Bank, 2010).

  39. 39.

    China Internet Network Information Center, “Statistical Report on Internet Development in China.,” China Internet Network Information Center, http://www1.cnnic.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/201302/P020130221391269963814.pdf.

  40. 40.

    Internet Live Stats, “Internet Users in China,” www.internetlivestats.com, http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/china/.

  41. 41.

    Ibid.

  42. 42.

    Zhan Zhang, Negro, Gianluigi, “Weibo in China: Understanding Its Development through Communication Analysis and Cultural Studies,” Communication, Politics & Culture 46 (2013).

  43. 43.

    Ruby Murray, “China’s Digital Natives Behind with the Great Firewall,” thesaturdaypaper.com.au, https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2016/01/23/chinas-digital-natives-behind-with-the-great-firewall/14534676002803.

  44. 44.

    Liyan Chen, “Alibaba Claims Title for Largest Global IPO Ever with Extra Share Sales,” Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014/09/22/alibaba-claims-title-for-largest-global-ipo-ever-with-extra-share-sales/#e57f7bf7c26d.

  45. 45.

    Lena Zhang, “Behind the ‘Great Firewall’: Decoding China’s Internet Media Policies from the Inside,” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 12, no. 3 (2006). p. 279.

  46. 46.

    State Council Information Office, “Provisions on the Administration of Internet News and Information Services,” State Council Information Office, http://www.china.org.cn/business/2010-01/21/content_19281869.htm.

  47. 47.

    Internet Society of China, “Public Pledge of Self-Regulation and Professional Ethics for China Internet Industry,” Internet Society of China, http://www.isc.org.cn/20020417/ca102762.htm.

  48. 48.

    Open Democracy, “The Great Firewall of China,” Open Democracy, http://www.opendemocracy.net/print/2524.

  49. 49.

    Hughes. p. 207.

  50. 50.

    George Chen, Dickinson, Steve, Schleshiner, Qiang, Xiao, Creemers, Rogier, Wertime, “China’s Great Firewall Is Rising,” Foreign Policy, http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/03/china-great-firewall-is-rising-censorship-internet/.

  51. 51.

    Jonathan Watts, “China’s Secret Internet Police Target Critics with Web of Propaganda,” The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/jun/14/newmedia.china#article_continue.

  52. 52.

    Human Rights Watch, “Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship,” (New York City: Human Rights Watch, 2006). p. 3.

  53. 53.

    Malcolm Moore, “Ai Weiwei Starts New Openness Campaign,” The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8159401/Ai-Weiwei-starts-new-openness-campaign.html#.

  54. 54.

    Ibid.

  55. 55.

    Ai Weiwei, “China’s Censorship Can Never Defeat the Internet,” The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2012/apr/16/china-censorship-internet-freedom.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    “Ai Weiwei: The Internet Vs. The Chinese Government,” Big Think: Smarter, Faster, http://bigthink.com/experts-corner/dispatches-from-the-police-state-nil-1-the-internet-is-constantly-putting-the-chinese-government-on-trial.

  58. 58.

    Ow Wei Chow, “Songs About ‘Mother’ at the Verge of Being ‘Harmonised’: Propagation of Resistance against the Great Firewall of China,” in Music and Mind, ed. Jahnichen Gisa, Made, Mantle Hood, Chinthaka, Meddegoda (Selangor: Universiti Putra Malaysia, 2014).

  59. 59.

    Bruce Sterling, “Web Semantics: Popular Chinese Internet Slang Expressions and Acronyms,” Wired.com, https://www.wired.com/2010/09/web-semantics-popular-chinese-internet-slang-expressions-and-acronyms/.

  60. 60.

    Astrid Nordin, Richaud, Lisa, “Subverting Official Language and Discourse in China? Type River Crab for Harmony,” China Information 28, no. 1 (2014). p. 57.

  61. 61.

    Giorgio Strafella, Berg, Daria, “A Decade of Blogging in China,” University of Nottingham, https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/chinapolicyinstitute/2015/08/31/a-decade-of-blogging-in-china/.

  62. 62.

    Tom Simonite, “Browser Plug-in Punches an Unfixable Hole in China’s Great Firewall,” MIT Technology Review, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/543711/browser-plug-in-punches-an-unfixable-hole-in-chinas-great-firewall/.

  63. 63.

    Weiwei, “China’s Censorship Can Never Defeat the Internet”.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    “Ai Weiwei: The Internet Vs. The Chinese Government”.

  66. 66.

    Jordan Sullivan, “China’s Weibo: Is Faster Different?,” New Media & Society 16 (2014).

  67. 67.

    Goubin Yang, “Technology and Its Contents: Issues in the Study of the Chinese Internet,” The Journal of Asian Studies 70, no. 4 (2011).

  68. 68.

    “A Chinese Internet? History, Practice, and Globalization,” Chinese Journal of Communication 1, no. 6 (2012).

  69. 69.

    “Technology and Its Contents: Issues in the Study of the Chinese Internet.”

  70. 70.

    “A Chinese Internet? History, Practice, and Globalization.”

  71. 71.

    Murray.

  72. 72.

    Yang, “A Chinese Internet? History, Practice, and Globalization.”

  73. 73.

    Feng Zhang, “The Rise of Chinese Exceptionalism in International Relations,” European Journal of International Relations 12, no. 2 (2011).

  74. 74.

    Jiang Min, “Authoritarian Informationalism: China’s Approach to Internet Sovereignty,” SAIS Review 30, no. 2 (2010).

  75. 75.

    Goubin Yang, “Technology and Its Contents: Issues in the Study of the Chinese Internet,” The Journal of Asian Studies 40, no. 4 (2011). p. 1043.

  76. 76.

    “A Chinese Internet? History, Practice, and Globalization.”

  77. 77.

    Jon Garvie, “Trading Free Speech,” Index on Censorship 4 (2007). p. 43.

  78. 78.

    Ibid. p. 43.

  79. 79.

    James Baker, “America in Asia: Emerging Architecture for a Pacific Community,” Foreign Affairs 70, no. 5 (1991/92). p. 16.

  80. 80.

    Madeleine Albright, “Sustaining Democracy in the Twenty-First Century,” in The Rostov Lecture Series (School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 2000).

  81. 81.

    Hillary Clinton, “Remarks on Internet Freedom,” United States Department of State, http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm.

  82. 82.

    Gorden Chang, “China’s ‘Internet Plus’ Strategy, a Net Minus,” Frobes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2015/04/19/chinas-internet-plus-strategy-a-net-minus/#6f5734227ac4s.

  83. 83.

    Bao Beibei, “How Internet Censorship Is Curbing Innovation in China,” The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/how-internet-censorship-is-curbing-innovation-in-china/275188/.

  84. 84.

    Jordan Calinoff, “Beijing’s Foreign Internet Purge,” Foreign Policy (2010).

  85. 85.

    Endalk, “Ethiopia: Netizens Outraged as Ethiopia Steps up Internet Censorship,” GlobalVoices.org, https://globalvoices.org/2012/04/27/ethiopia-netizens-outraged-as-ethiopia-steps-up-internet-censorship/.

  86. 86.

    Human Rights Watch. p. 5.

  87. 87.

    Wook Kim Sung, Douai, Aziz, “Google Vs. China’s “Great Firewall”: Ethical Implications for Free Speech and Sovereignty,” Technology in Society 34 (2012).

  88. 88.

    Mike Isaac, “Facebook Said to Create Censorship Tool to Get Back into China,” NYTimes.com, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/technology/facebook-censorship-tool-china.html.

  89. 89.

    Tim Wu, “The World Trade Law of Censorship and Internet Filtering,” Chicago Journal of International Law (2006). p. 287.

  90. 90.

    The Economist, “Big Data, Meet Big Brother: China Invents the Digital Totalitarian State,” TheEconomist.com, http://www.economist.com/node/21711902/.

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    Phillip Kalantzis-Cope

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Kalantzis-Cope, P. (2018). The Private: Whose Equilibrium?. In: The Work and Play of the Mind in the Information Age. Frontiers of Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64650-3_2

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