The sounds of silence: Copyright and human rights

Abstract

This paper discusses the processes of cultural accretion and adaptation. This identifies borrowing and adaptation as integral to creative processes. Modern transport and communications technologies have facilitated and accelerated the processes of creating new works incorporating elements of the ‘old’ but retaining some of the ‘old’ identity. Culture is enshrined in the foundation of human rights law with consequences for both access to and protection of intellectual property. This is demonstrated through consideration of both artistic and scholarly creation with particular attention to indigenous traditional knowledge. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.