 Whose Music Is It Anyway?: How We Came To View Musical Expression As A Form Of Property -- Part IMichael Carroll
Villanova University Legal Working Paper Series from Villanova University School of Law Abstract: Many participants in the music industry consider unauthorized downloading of music files over the Internet to be "theft" of their "property." Many Internet users who exchange music files reject that characterization. Prompted by this dispute, this Article explores how those who create and distribute music first came to look upon music as their property and when in Western history the law first supported this view. By analyzing the economic and legal structures governing musicmaking in Western Europe from the classical period in Greece through the Renaissance, the Article shows that the law first granted some exclusive rights in the Middle Ages, when musicians' guilds enjoyed the exclusive right to perform music in medieval cities, but that the concept of music as a form of property was not established until early music publishers received exclusive rights in their publications during the Renaissance. The Article concludes with thoughts about how this history should influence the way we address the current controversy concerning uses of music on the Internet. New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bep:villwp:villanovalwps-1001 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Villanova University Legal Working Paper Series from Villanova University School of Law |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.