This article argues that the cultural problem of the Information Society can be defined in terms of conditions determining the production, distribution and access to expression. The conceptualization of culture and cultural rights is explored by organizing cultural debates into three models, with a critical common ground then identified in each regarding the significance of the concern for expression. This problematization then serves as a way of addressing a number of critical dimensions in the policy debates of the Information Society emerging in world trade agreements. It is held that cultural rights and the conditions of expression can be articulated as a product of forms of information policy, such as: intellectual property laws, universal service and access to critical features of networks in the production and distribution of expression; the number of information providers, producers and distributors favored by competition policies; and the structure of positive and negative information rights implemented as content regulation under constitutional, statutory and regulatory obligations. The article examines the treatment of this set of information policies in a few emerging world trade agreements for the information sector, and the analysis concludes that the current world trade paradigm of the Information Society stands to transform profoundly the structure of content in the information age in favor of concentration of expression under proprietary governance. The implications of this change and criteria for evaluating cultural rights and information rights are provided.
Anderson, B. (1983) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
2.
Barthes, R. (1990) Mythologies. New York: The Noonday Press. (Originally published 1957.)
3.
Bauby, P. and J. Boual (1994) Pour une citoyenneté Européenne: Quels services publics?Paris: Les Éditions de l'Atelier.
4.
Bauman, Z. (1991) `Living Without an Alternative', The Political Quarterly62(1): 35-44.
5.
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (9 September 1886) revised, Paris, 24 July 1971, 25 UST 1341.
6.
Blakeney, M. (1996) `The Impact of the TRIPS Agreement in the Asia Pacific Region', European Intellectual Property Review18(10): 544-554.
7.
Boyle, J. (1996) Shamans, Software and Spleens. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
Center for Strategic and International Studies (1994). `The European Union-United States Information Infrastructure Dialogue: Background Papers'. Washington, DC: CSIS.
9.
Clark, R. T. (1955) Herder: His Life and Thought. Berkeley: University of California Press.
10.
Commission of the European Communities (1994) `Europe and the Global Information Society', Bangemann Task Force Report to the European Council, Cordis Supplement 2 (15 July): 4-31. Brussels: European Commission, DG XIII/D-2.
11.
Commission of the European Communities (1995a) `Green Paper on the Liberalization of Telecommunications Infrastructure and Cable Television Networks, Part 2: A Common Approach to the Provision of Infrastructure for Telecommunications in the European Union', (COM[94] 682 final), 25 January.
12.
Commission of the European Communities (1995b) `Chair, Mr. Jacques Santer's Conclusions', G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, Brussels, 25-26 February. Brussels: Office of the President of the European Commission.
13.
Commission of the European Communities (1997) `Common Position (EC) No. 7/97 on a Common Framework for General Authorizations and Individual Licenses in the Field of Telecommunications Services', Official Journal of the European Communities No. C41/48, 10 February.
14.
Drahos, Peter and Richard A. Joseph (1995) `Telecommunications and Investment in the Great Supranational Regulatory Game', Telecommunications Policy19(8): 619-635.
15.
GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) (1993) `Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)', Annex 1C in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, MTN/FA, 15 December, UR-93-0246.
16.
Gellner, E. (1983) Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
17.
Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
18.
Gramsci, A. (1991) Selections from Cultural Writings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Originally published 1913-35.)
19.
Habermas, J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 2, trans. T. McCarthy. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
20.
Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, trans. Thomas Burger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
21.
Habermas, J. (1990) Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, trans. C. Lenhardt and S. W. Nicholsen. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
22.
Harvey, D. (1990) The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
23.
Held, D. (1991) `Democracy and Globalization', Alternatives16: 201-208.
24.
Hoffman, S. (1995) `The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism', Foreign Policy98(Spring): 159-177.
25.
Horkheimer, M. and T. W. Adorno (1972) Dialectic of Enlightenment, trans. J. Cumming. New York: Seabury. (Originally published 1944.)
26.
Inside US Trade (1996) `US Lays Out Arguments in WTO Case on Canadian Cultural Policies', 13 September: 10-11.
27.
Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
28.
Jaszi, P. A. (1996) `Goodbye to All That: A Reluctant (and Perhaps Premature) Adieu to a Constitutionally-Grounded Discourse of Public Interest in Copyright Law', Vanderbilt Journal of International Law29(3): 595-611.
29.
Kant, I. (1991) Kant: Political Writings, edit. H. S. Reiss and trans. H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Originally published 1784-97.)
30.
Laclau, E. (1988) `Politics and the Limits of Modernity', pp. 36-48 in T. Mastnak and R. Riha (eds) The Subject in Democracy. Ljublijana: Institut za marksisticne studije ZRC SAZU.
31.
Lepsius, M. R. (1992) `Beyond the Nation-State', Telos91(Spring): 57-76.
32.
Locke, J. (1960) Two Treatises of Government, intro. P. Laslett. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Originally published 1690.)
33.
Lyotard, J. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
34.
Martin-Barbero, J. (1993) Communication, Culture and Hegemony: From the Media to Mediations. London: Sage.
35.
Morris, N. (1995) `Local Identities and Imported Media: The Fear of Displacement in Puerto Rico', The Journal of International Communication (2)2: 7-23.
36.
Mouffe, C. (1988) `Radical Democracy: Modern or Postmodern?', pp. 9-20 in T. Mastnak and R. Riha (eds) The Subject in Democracy. Ljubljana: Institut za marksisticne studije ZRC SAZU.
37.
New York Times (1993) `With Time Waning, Europeans Reject US Movie Compromise', 14 December: 1.
38.
Nicholas, D. (1990) `Global Business Needs Better Telecommunications for Trade Purposes', pp. 93-96 in R. B. Woodrow (ed.) Uruguay Trade Round in Services Perspectives. Geneva: Applied Services Economic Centre.
39.
Noam, E. (1994) `Is Telecommunications Liberalization an Expansionary Process?', pp. 7-16 in E. Noam and G. Pogorel (eds) Asymmetric Deregulation. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
40.
Noam, E. (1995) `From the Network of Networks to the System of Systems', pp. 25-38 in Meheroo Jussawalla (ed.) Telecommunications: A Bridge to the 21st Century. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
41.
Patterson, O. (1991) Freedom in the Making of Western Culture. New York: Basic Books.
42.
Pool, I. (1990) Technologies Without Boundaries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
Smith, A. (1986) The Wealth of Nations, books I-III, intro. A. Skinner. London: Penguin. (Originally published 1776.)
44.
Taylor, C. (1979) Hegel and Modern Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
45.
US Congress (1993) `US Telecommunications Services in European Markets', Report of the Office of Technology Assessment, TCT-548, August. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
46.
US Congress (1996) Telecommunications Act of 1996, Public Law No. 104-104.
47.
US Government (1993) `The National Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Action', Information Infrastructure Task Force, September. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
48.
US Government (1995a) `Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure', Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights, or `White Paper,' 5 September.
49.
US Government (1995b) `Global Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Cooperation', Information Infrastructure Task Force, February. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
50.
US Government (1996a) Speech by US Chairman of the FCC, Reed Hundt to the Institute of Telecommunications Policy and Regulation, 12 December.
51.
US Government (1996b) `Seven Habits of Hopefully Highly Successful Deregulatory Communications Policy People', a speech delivered by US Chairman of the FCC, Reed Hundt to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 4 September.
52.
US Government (1997) `A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce', Interagency Working Group on Electronic Commerce White Paper.
53.
Venturelli, S. (1996) `Freedom and Its Mystification: The Political Thought of Public Space', pp. 105-140 in S. Braman and A. Sreberny-Mohammadi (eds) Globalization, Communication and Transnational Civil Society. Cresskil, NJ: Hampton Press.
54.
Venturelli, S. (1997) `The Information Society in Europe: Passing of the Public Service Paradigm of European Democracy', pp. 85-107 in C. Lankowski and A. Cafruni (eds) Europe's Ambiguous Unity: Conflict and Consensus in the Post-Maastricht Era. Boulder, CO and London: Lynne Rienner.
55.
Venturelli, S. (1998) Liberalising the European Media: Politics, Regulation and the Public Sphere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
56.
Williams, R. (1990) Culture and Society. London: The Hogarth Press. (Originally published 1958.)
57.
WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) (1996) `Draft Agenda for the Diplomatic Conference on Certain Copyright and Neighboring Rights Questions', Geneva, 2-20 December, CRNR/DC/1.
58.
WTO (World Trade Organization) (1997) `Fourth Protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services' (`World Telecoms Agreement'), S/L/20.
