著作权正当性的危机与出路

在著作权利益集团主导的著作权体制下,著作权成为直接控制消费者的工具以及创作自由与网络技术发展的障碍,从而造成著作权侵权成为一种常态社会现象的危机。只有坚持每一种新生的著作权客体与权利都经过充分的正当性论证、构建以维护创作自由与网络技术发展以及不以消费者为直接控制对象的权利与权利限制制度,才能使已经发生或正在发生的对著作权正当性的偏离得到回归。     

《消费者权益保护法》的惩罚性赔偿原则及条款——以新《消法》修正案通过为背景

1994年《消费者权益保护法》实施以来,法学研究者、社会民众、执法人员等对惩罚性赔偿制度的讨论持有热情,对该制度的司法适用也一直是难点和疑点。《消费者权益保护法》修正案对惩罚性赔偿的修改具有进步意义,但并没有终结对该问题的讨论。以《消费者权益保护法》修正案通过为背景在适用范围、主观要件和赔偿额等方面的讨论仍有空间。     

试论《食品安全法》中关于消费者权益保护的欠缺

消费者是食品链中最大的群体。《食品安全法》的立法之本是为了保护消费者的安全,但是《食品安全法》在消费者权益保护方面却存在很多问题,比如,食品安全概念的狭隘,某些法条难以实施,与其它法律之间互相矛盾等。本文分析了《食品安全法》关于消费者权益保护的欠缺之处,并提出了修改建议。食品药品监督管理总局的成立及食品安全监管部门职能的调整改变了以前分段管理的模式,《食品安全法》要做相应的修改。希望在《食品安全法》的修订过程中可以加强对消费者权益的保护,增加该法的实用性。     

Nostalgias

Abstract

This paper launches a thought experiment the aim of which is to recover and defend an idea of nostalgia as something other than merely maudlin yearning after the days of yore. Much critical comment on nostalgia, in everyday parlance and in academic debate, begins from the standpoint that the time longed for was never really as it is now, nostalgically, imagined. The force and validity of this jibe is admitted in this paper, but it argues that the concept of nostalgia can be reshaped and turned in quite different less reactive directions. A distinction between Nostalgia and nostalgias is coined in order to introduce a plural and critical version of nostalgic memory. The play of memory in nostalgias is exemplified through a focus on four topoi of experience which are strained, possibly even shattered, by the digitalisation and rationalisation of contemporary culture and society. Nostalgias of and for the body, nature, thought, and modernity itself are explored by comparison to themes of melancholy and utopia which arise in Frankfurt School critical theory as responses to a similarly perceived trauma and triumph of instrumental reason. I argue that ultimately the distinction between nostalgias and Nostalgia cannot be maintained - nostalgias are rather types or tropes of Nostalgia. However, through thinking Nostalgia along the lines of this neologism (nostalgias) we might come to see its dynamic and critical mnemonic potencies. Hence, the paper concludes that nostalgia ought not be simply contemned and dismissed as the conservative freezing of memories and images of a fake past.     

Adorno's Contemplative Ethics

Abstract

This paper argues that there is an ethics of contemplation that is internal to Adorno's critique of modern functionalised and administered societies. It is argued here that ‘contemplation’ is Adorno's name for a praxis by which one is open to the other, and yet can let the other be. Adorno sees a kernel of experience in such contemplative practices, which, although increasingly being stripped bare by the modern world, is the basis for its possible critique.     

Primitiveness and the flight from modernity: sociology and the avant-garde in inter-war France

This paper examines the links between the French school of sociology and anthropology and the surrealist avant-garde in inter-war Paris by unearthing their common reliance on a cross-cultural critique of European modernity. Accordingly, the paper focuses on how both currents – and notably the Collège de sociologie – used representations of a mythical ‘primitive’ condition to produce an outside of modern society and an alternative socio-cultural universe from which Europe's pathologies could be diagnosed. This self-critique through a comparative lens aimed to radically situate, relativize and decentre the phenomena of rationalization, disenchantment and anomie characterizing modernity, which could be shown to be neither natural, eternal, universal nor inevitable, but rather the socio-historical products of developments in a particular culture during a specific period of its history.     

A theoretical framework for the online consumer response process The article is based on Janette Hanekom's Master's dissertation entitled A theoretical framework for the online consumer response process,Department of Communication Science,Unisa, April 2007.

Abstract

This article describes the foundation and development of a theoretical framework for the online consumer response process. It is based on theoretical criteria for web-based commercial communication and the online consumer response process. Central to this article is the development of the concept of web-based commercial communication. This includes all advertising, marketing communication, public relations and promotional messages on the World Wide Web which are intended to move the consumer through certain response phases to the point of purchasing or proceeding to any other type of action; the identification of the marketing communication paradigm shift from offline to online; and the comparison between online and traditional mass media audience characteristics. A theoretical conceptualisation of the online consumer response process is undertaken and an analysis of consumer response models and the theory of the general consumer response process is performed. This article is a theoretical exploration of the phenomenon of ‘online consumer response’ and the proposed theoretical framework is intended to address the dearth of literature on the topic.     

The South African National Credit Act fails to protect homeowners against various interest rates hikes

Where a credit provider makes a proper financial assessment and finds that the low-income consumer will be able to satisfy in a timely manner all the obligations under all the credit agreements to which the consumer is a party he will in all probability conclude the credit agreement with the consumer. Obviously the affordability assessment made by the credit provider will depend on the prevailing interest rates at the time. There has been several interest rate hikes since June 2006 to December 2008 in South Africa that has had a detrimental impact on low-income home owners. Due to the various interest rate hikes and the prevailing high interest rates many consumers have lost their mortgaged homes. The South African National Credit Act of 2005 has failed to take into its purview cases such as these, and as a consequence there is no sort of consumer protection available for the low-income group who become over-indebted, because of the constant rising interest rates on their mortgage loans.     

论毛泽东消费经济思想

毛泽东消费经济思想带有我国新民主主义革命、社会主义革命和社会主义建设初期的时代烙印与国情特点;有以共同富裕为核心的一系列思想内容;体现其消费思想的消费政策有供给制、消费品统购统销、配给制、福利保障等。     

俄罗斯远东发展生活资料市场的规划和措施

俄罗斯远东的买方市场是在生产能力不足而不是过剩的条件下形成的,许多消费品还依赖进口就是明证。俄罗斯国家和远东地方政府出台了一系列发展生活资料市场的规划和措施,但是远东消费品工业发展滞后的局面难以根本改观。