A New Cultural Economy: The Limits of Intellectual Property

""The age of copyright and intellectual property has reached its expiration date" - a development that already manifested itself in the technical fundamentals of the Internet has reared its head in the actual practices of a young generation of users and is bringing forth a new economy of sharing that clever business people are now taking to the next conceptual lever: a new cultural economy. With this provocative formulation, Ars Electronica 2008 is placing one of the core issues of modern knowledge-based society at the focal point of this year's festival program. Artists, theorists and experienced network nomads elaborate on these phenomena that now characterize our culture of everyday life: from angst-inducing scenarios of the annulment of intellectual property rights all the way to kicking back and going with the global information flow. So then - what status can intellectual property still have in an open knowledge-based society? And who's responsible for protecting intellectual property and establishing practicable rules?"--BOOK JACKET.