Can Culture Be Copyrighted?

In light of the ability of individuals & organizations to obtain & profit from the cultural knowledge of indigenous peoples by electronic means, legal expansion of the copyright laws has been proposed. Assessed here are legal schemes to control such appropriation, in particular, proposals that indigenous peoples should be permitted to copyright ideas, rather than merely their tangible expression. Also considered is the tendency of intellectual property debate to preempt needed reflection on the political viability of special rights regimes in pluralist democracies & on the appropriateness of using copyright law to enforce respect for other cultures. Comments are offered by J. A. Barnes, David A. Cleveland, Rosemary J. Coombe, Philippe Descola, L. R. Hiatt, Jean Jackson, B. G. Karlsson, Darrell Addison Posey, Willow Roberts Powers, Lawrence Rosen, Fernando Santos Granero, Carlo Severi, David J. Stephenson, Jr., Marilyn Strathern, & Donald Tuzin. In Reply, Brown reiterates the complexity of this issue but defends his position that indigenous peoples' assertions of rights cannot simply be accepted, but must be judged according to their practicality & moral reasonableness. 100 References. Adapted from the source document.