Private Property Concerning Digitized Cultural Goods: Artificial Scarcity and Appropriation through Reproduction

ABSTRACT

Intellectual property is a legal concept used to regulate cultural goods and artistic forms of expression. It constitutes a peculiar regulation, as it applies the categories of private property to intangible goods. With the spread of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which has allowed for the reproduction and global diffusion of these cultural goods, conflicts concerning intellectual property have increased. This article attempts to analyze some difficulties in using a concept such as private property to approach the marketing of cultural goods, especially when technology eliminates the quality of scarcity of these goods, which can be infinitely reproduced at almost zero cost.     

Minors,gender, and family: The discourses in the court system of traditional Buenos Aires

The article deals with public attitudes toward family responsibility in early-nineteenth-century Bienos Aires, particularly as revealed in lawsuits occasioned by disputes over the custody of minors. The care and education of minors was ordinarily entrusted to parents, but death, incapacity, licentious conduct, poverty or abandonment often resulted in the minor being removed from parents and taken by others into custody of guardians or institutions of public welfare. The majority of the analyzed lawsuits resulted from an attempt by parents to recover their authority over their children. The lawsuits indicate that the racial, gender, social, and generational “disadvantages” of plaintiffs did not a priori determine the judgement, but rather that arguments for family stability frequently were decisive when heard by sympathetic judges. Disadvantages persons thus frequently argued sucessfully about the meaning of the family, as protagonists in the legal system that otherwise often marginalized them.     

Developments in household patterns in three towns in Navarre,Spain, 1786–1986

Contrary to what has been observed in other regions of Spain, the households of Sangüesa, Yesa, and Lesaca have undergone a set of transformation in their composition and structure in the last 200 years. These changes are closely linked to the economic changes that have taken place in Navarre during this period. The chief characteristic of the developments over the past two centuries has been the rise of the household with a simply structure (married couples with or without children), to which category most households now belong. A further noteworthy features is the fact that domestic servants have now almost completely disappeared.     

“We weren't the sort that wanted intimacy every night”: Birth control and abstinence in England,c.1930–60

This article presents an exploration of qualitative evidence on the relationship between birth control and abstinence from an oral history project, which interviewed middle and working-class English men and women, who had married between the late 1920s and the early 1950s. Among the working classes the assumption that men were responsible for birth control choices and the disadvantages that contraceptive methods of all types posed, combined with the fear of pregnancy, acted as a disincentive to have sex and resulted in forms of partial abstinence. Among the middle classes, women had much more access to birth control information and as a consequence a greater range of methods was used, including more female methods. However, the reluctance of couples to discuss sexual matters, and some continued preference for male methods meant that while condoms were the most regularly used middle-class male method, both withdrawal and abstinence were also in evidence. Moreover, although partners were more likely to discuss birth control at the start of their marriages, they were less likely to agree that contraception was a male responsibility and there was greater potential for conflict over contraceptive methods, not infrequently resulting in abstinence. The evidence suggests that sexual and contraceptive practices in marriages in England at the end of the secular fertility decline do not present a picture which straightforwardly correlates with the assumptions represented by the popular thesis that this period of increased fertility control was closely associated with the rise of companionate marriage.     

‘Till Death Us Do Part’: spousal homicide in early modern Russia

The history of domestic violence, let alone domestic homicide, in Russia has yet to be written. This article focuses on the legal attitudes to domestic and especially marital homicide in early modern Russia and explores types of and methods used in spousal killings. The research is based on court records in addition to laws, legal documents and other sources. Its preliminary conclusions include assumptions about scale of domestic violence, gender of perpetrators and victims, main trends in domestic homicide and their connections with available explanatory frameworks. The study reveals that Russian households were violent places accounting for different types of assaults and homicides, but in all these acts women died more frequently than men. Marital homicide occurred in all social groups in Russia. Motives and methods for marital homicides were consistent with gendered theories of power relations. Penal policies also reveal harsher treatment of women than men, pointing to the gendered definitions of power disciplining methods.     

Marriage systems and remarriage in 19th century Hungary: a comparative study

The paper tries to examine the intensity and possible influencing factors of remarriages in two distant communities of historic Hungary during the 19th century. It uses longitudinal data gained from parish registers and family reconstitution method and event history models for the analysis of remarriage. Having only incomplete information on the social status of widowed persons, we used sex, age at widowhood, period, duration of widowhood and family composition as independent variables in the models. The analysis could prove that there were considerable differences within the ‘Eastern marriage pattern’: the analysed Transylvanian community showed a higher propensity to remarry than the West Hungarian one. This result fits well into the differing demographic patterns of the two communities. The most probable causes of these differences were better mortality and differing social composition in the Hungarian village. High propensity to remarry and the high proportion of widower/widow marriages stress the unique character of the Transylvanian community. Otherwise the role of sex was decisive in remarriage, that of age and duration of widowhood were also considerable, while period effect could not be observed. The presence of working-age sons decreased the relative risk of remarriage significantly. In this respect there were no considerable differences between the studied communities, and the results are similar to those of other research.     

Diplomacy,terrorism, and national narratives in the United States–Iran relationship

The United States and Iran have failed repeatedly in the last thirty years to normalise diplomatic relations. Each attempt to open a dialogue has been set back by acts of terrorism or perceptions thereof, and the small openings for diplomacy were quickly shut. The difficulties of normal diplomacy should be understood in light of the national narratives that guide each country's international behaviour, narratives that include strong admonitions on terrorism and sow distrust. One method to overcome the obstacles thrown up by these national narratives is to explore their dynamics and attempt to write a new, common narrative.     

英国足球的历史传承与产业化

英国是世界公认的体育强国,更是现代足球的摇篮。足球在英国有着悠久的历史,所以英国文化中渗透着浓厚的足球元素。潜移默化的足球文化与大众深厚的足球情结,使足球成为一项炙手可热的产业。因此,英国足球也从俱乐部的业余性娱乐活动逐渐走向了由俱乐部经营的职业化运动。毋庸置疑,正是源于其悠久的历史传承和坚实的群众基础以及规范化的市场运营才使之成功地实现了高端产业化,英格兰文化也因足球而声名远播。     

知识产权滥用反垄断立法规制的现状与重构

知识产权滥用源于在现有法律框架下权利人对其知识产权的不恰当行使。总体来说,规制知识产权滥用的反垄断法律制度在我国还处于萌芽状态,从严格、完整意义上来说,甚至还近于空白。为了规制知识产权滥用行为,应着力完善我国的知识产权制度体系;改变《反垄断法》多头执法局面,设立有执行力的执法机构;完善诉讼程序,增强《反垄断法》的可实施性;尽快出台《反垄断法》实施细则和《知识产权滥用的反垄断规制指南》。     

Buster,Maranzano and the Castellammare War, 1930–1931

More than most issues surrounding the American Mafia, the history of the Castellammare War is contestable at both theoretical and empirical levels. As the alleged pivotal event in the creation of the contemporary structure of the US Mafia or Cosa Nostra, it is of obvious importance as a topic of historical investigation. But a survey of published works on the War and its consequences reveals confusion, inaccuracies, erroneous assumptions and missing information. This is the first major systematic attempt to explore the War and its consequences made since the 1970s. Aside from adding substantially to the stock of knowledge of the War and its participants, debates on the War are critically evaluated, using original source materials where possible. The Castellammare War did not have the ramifications assumed, when placed either in a broader context or from the vantage point of internal American Mafia dynamics.