The Copyright Thing Doesn't Work Here, 2

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CCR 747 ::: S13

Sunday, April 14, 13

Is the very idea of
authorship colonialist?
(109)


What does it mean to
author cloth?


face, economic power,
and appropriation


Lindsey:
I think that her chapter “We Run a Single Country” helps inform the
debate we were having in class. In this chapter she writes, “While these
are important questions [what do we mean by ‘taking?’ what values
and concern are implicated by the process of appropriate?] and inform
the discussion in this chapter, the approach taken here varies in a
number of respects…appropriation tends to be viewed as occurring
when a more powerful group takes the cultural production of a less
powerful group. What is often left out of the discussion is how less
powerful groups come to acquire that culture in the ﬁrst place. Also
excluded is the consideration of the political importance of the acts of
appropriation that may not be backed by laws and other instruments
of the state” (118).


4 levels to consider:
tribal, local, national and global
circuits of production


also: diasporas


Through a combination of deliberate policy and
longstanding practices of appropriation by state,
groups, and individuals, therefore adinkra and kente
are now generally regarded as being both Asante and
Ghanaian, and Asante ofﬁcials and Ghanaian state
reps collaborate in the state’s custodianship of kente
(though not in the state’s legal ownership via IP law.)
The artiﬁcial basis of these product’s incorporation ...
comes to the fore, however, in the face of questoins
about formal ownership rights... (127)


Globalization is also seen here as a multidimensional
process that cannot be reduced to economic and
financial conditions -- especially in the current phase
that has to do with the flows and exchanges made
possibly by advances in information technologies
(including the ethnic, media, technological, financial, and
ideological landscapes identified by Appadurai.) (119)


multidirectional ﬂow:
European silk textiles


The real difference between the acceptance of imitation
cloth in local and diasporic markets may therefore be
the kind of revenue loss entailed. In the diaspora, that
revenue amounts to scarce foreign exchange, while at
home, the loss is in less valuable local currency. At the
same time, the Ghana government’s inclusion of key
adinkra- and kente-producing communities on ofﬁcial
tourist maps also means that cloth production in these
communities is sustained by their location in tourist
networks. (141)


Jess:
what this example comes down to is globalization and efficiency,
where what is lost is not just connected to the status of having
fabric worn in another nation, but the reality that if someone (or
nation) can produce more efficiently, the creativity and cultural
significance of the original product largely are pushed to the
wayside.


Jess:

And so when we think about ownership rights and what’s at stake
with appropriation, the very real material conditions of
globalization leave room for pause. To say that Intellectual Property
is connected to globalization and is turning into a “predominantly
economic issue” is signiﬁcant because we’re talking about Ghana, a
nation colonized, dominated, and disadvantaged economically
(150). Said another way, when Intellectual Property is connected
to economics, it’s no stretch to say we are literally talking about
some people’s livelihoods in a system that privileges nations
already at the top of the economic hierarchy.


Jess:

I think this gets back to what I was trying to say in class
–that it seems different to be talking about my ideas or
words as intellectual property and the ownership of
cloth that is often a tool for survival. I have the privilege
to share my ideas, and I personally have never felt as if
someone taking my ideas in any way would affect
neither my ability to survive nor my nation’s economic
structure. So, for me, this is a difference of what’s at
stake with each position.


The Copyright Thing Doesn't Work Here, 2

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