> >> Some profound changes indeed, but do we need to change theory to make
> >> sense of them?
> >
> >Yes. Otherwise you keep slotting what you see into the closest hole in
> your
> >standard theory, regardless of whether it is still appropriate or
> productive.
> >
> >Catherine
>
> What specific changes in Marxist theory do you need to make in order
> to make sense of the changes described in "The Political Economy of
> Intellectual Property"?
It's not clear to me at which point in the history of Marxist theory you imagine it to be complete, and no longer in need of change. Presumably it's not only things authored by Marx. But, in any case, are you actually suggesting that if Marxist theory can explain this specific instance, then that proves it to be a complete explanation in every social context, at all times and places? That is... extraordinary.
In fact, actually, I'm not sure I think Marx's version of either the exploitation of labour or commodity is sufficient to explain what is or might be going on with IP at present.
Having spent an all too memorable year on an IP policy committee I'm very aware that, for example, IP in the Australian tertiary sector currently involves a number of factors which are not reducible to maximising profit from the IP-as- commodity. The network of influence between governments, policies (both cacmpaign and otherwise), insitutions, and enterprise bargaining that shape what IP is "maximised" or "exploited" and what is not involves a range of institutional histories and histories of publically finded education and public debate. You cannot understand what is happening with IP through only Marx's model of the commodity, or of the exploitation of labour. I'm not saying it's a better situation than that, only that its complications involve elements of contemporary production that Marx wasn't talking about. And no, what I just said isn't necessarily applicable to the U.S., but then that's the point.
Catherine
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