The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties: Authorship, Appropriation, and the Law
Logos, trademarks, national insignia, brand names, celebrity images, design patents, and advertising texts are vibrant signs in a consumer culture governed by a regime of intellectual property laws. In The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties, professor of law and cultural anthropologist Rosemary J. Coombe brings an illuminating ethnographic approach to an analysis of authorship and the role law plays in shaping the various meanings that animate these protected properties in the public...
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An ethnography of inellectual property, discussing the uses made of items of inellectual property by various cultural groups — for purposes of identity, solidaritiy, resistance and so forth. Times Literary Supplement "[F]orceful, provocative and sometimes tendentious . . . . Rosemary Coombe points us towards areas of society where the increasingly oppressive dominance of trademarks and copyrights may be resisted and possibly subverted.
\ From the Publisher"[F]orceful, provocative and sometimes tendentious . . . . Rosemary Coombe points us towards areas of society where the increasingly oppressive dominance of trademarks and copyrights may be resisted and possibly subverted." - Times Literary Supplement\ “[A]n important book, asking terribly significant questions and providing reasonable answers supported by numerous provocative examples. It deserves to be read and discussed by all who are concerned about the role of law in cultural politics.” - Mark Kessler, The Law and Politics Book Review\ “[P]athbreaking. . . . [Coombe’s] study has much to offer a broad range of scholars including those in the social sciences and humanities, communications departments, and law schools.” - Lisa A. Marovich, Law and History Review\ "[A] fascinating romp through consumer culture." - Peter Krapp, Cultural Critique\ “A sparklingly original synthesis of cultural studies and law. Rosemary J. Coombe is a clever and edifying guide through the hidden landscape of property rights that subtly shapes so many cultural phenomena, from the circulation of celebrities to the struggles of indigenous peoples.”—Bruce Robbins, Rutgers University\ “This is a scintillating cultural commentary: Coombe’s own skills as anthropologist and lawyer have been re-combined to devastating effect.”—Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge\ “This is highly original ethnography. Coombe not only shows us the lifeways of law, but also some fascinating routings between the streets and high theory, and back again. In all of this, Rosemary J. Coombe is a hip and good-humored guide—and a trenchant critic.”—Carol J. Greenhouse, Indiana University\ \ \ \ \ \ Law and Social InquiryCoombe employs an ethnographic approach to analyze authorship and the role of law in shaping commercial culture. Drawing on themes from cultural studies, anthropology, postcolonial theory, and political theory, she analyzes the practices of interpretation and appropriation in an increasingly privatized sphere. Maintaining that legal regimes shape both economic and cultural values, she discusses examples such as the Gay Olympic Games, James Dean, Dolly Parton, and Crazy Horse malt liquor, arguing that such cases reveal surprising relationships between citizenship and signification, the body politic and corporeal commodification, and liberalism and orientalism."-Law and Social Inquiry\ \ \ Times Literary Supplement"[F]orceful, provocative and sometimes tendentious . . . . Rosemary Coombe points us towards areas of society where the increasingly oppressive dominance of trademarks and copyrights may be resisted and possibly subverted.\ \
