Article,

Colonial Copyright, Postcolonial Publics : the Berne Convention and the 1967 Stockholm Diplomatic Conference Revisited

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SCRIPTed : A Journal of Law, Technology & Society, 7 (3): 532--550 (2010)
DOI: DOI: 10.2966/scrip.070310.532

Abstract

In the annals of international copyright history—by and large synonymous with the Berne Union and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works—translation occupies a contested space. At the end of the nineteenth century, as the nascent Convention tried to come to terms with the legal ramifications of translation and the way it challenged the perceived stability of the work, translation also acted as a conduit for geopolitical tensions between producer/user-nations. A conflict native to the Convention, the dichotomy between export/import and developed/developing nations returned with a vengeance during the calamitous Stockholm Revision Conference in 1967. In the following, I revisit this critical juncture in international copyright history to consider the divergent claims and counter-claims relating to translation and the dissemination of knowledge. The purpose of this essay is to contribute to a historically informed understanding of current processes surrounding the construction, dissemination and control of knowledge, as they materialise, for instance, in the WIPO Development Agenda.

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