University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository (University of New Hampshire at Manchester) · 2006 · 27 citations · 0 references
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LawGender StudiesIntellectual Property LawCopyright LawFeminist TheoryIntellectual PropertyDigital CopyrightFair UseFeminist Legal TheoryGender EqualityIntellectual Property ProtectionIntellectual Property RightsEnforcement Of Copyright RightsFair Use RightsFeminist Institutional CritiqueGendered InequalityIntellectual Property EconomicsIntellectual Property RegulationProductivityWomen's Intellectual Property Rights
Copyright laws are written and enforced to help certain groups of people assert and retain control over the resources generated by creative productivity. Because those people are predominantly male, the copyright infrastructure plays a role, largely unexamined by legal scholars, in helping to sustain the material and economic inequality between women and men. This essay considers some of the ways in which gender issues and copyright laws intersect, proposes a feminist critique of the copyright legal regime which advocates low levels of copyright protections, and asserts the importance of considering the social and economic disparities between women and men when evaluating the impacts and performance of intellectual property laws.