'Conceptions in the Code: What 'the Copyright Wars' Tell Us About Creativity, Social Change and Normative Conflicts in the Digital Society' by Stefan Larsson in 4(3)
Societal Studies (2012) 1009-1030
theoretically via scholarly literature the consequences of how the networked technology, the Internet is conceptualized. The Internet, as argued here, can be understood in many ways, in the sense that the digital environment is very much dependent on metaphors and conceptual loans to be spoken and thought of. This affects our behaviour and social norms and forms a number of legal challenges emerging in the transition from pre-digitalization to digitalization. The objective of the article is to understand digitalization and social change better, including legal dilemmas, from a conceptual metaphor perspective; hence the article is looking for conceptions 'in the code'. In order to do this, three main topics around which the analysis circles, are chosen: conceptions of the Internet and how metaphors control what we think of it; the role of digital technology in creating a gap between law and social norms: the example of copyright; and, legal conceptions of creativity challenged in a digital context. This means that the article opens a multidisciplinary dialogue between the cognitive theory and the sociology of law, which here, for example, relates to studies in culture and technology, in order to speak of legal and social issues related to digitalization.
Larsson
comments that -
This article is a theoretical, an explorative and an interdisciplinary piece, and it analyses via scholarly literature the consequences of how the networked technology that is the Internet is conceptualised. The Internet, as argued, is a combination of its infrastructure and protocol, and the social organisations forming upon the technology that sets up the constraints and possibilities by its structure and protocol. For example, the digital environment is very much dependant on metaphors and conceptual loans to be spoken and thought of. This is a way to exemplify how technology often plays an important role in processes of social and normative change, which may affect behaviour and social norms, in this case forming the legal challenges emerging in the transition between pre-digitalisation and digitalisation. Seen from the perspective of social change, indicated by the title, the 'law lag' stimulates a viable and relevant discussion. This analysis is made regarding the very concepts themselves that are used for describing the new organisation and societal challenges that have merged in and around the digital technologies and their artefacts. The awareness of how concepts are renegotiated is of relevance for this analysis ... This highlights the importance of metaphors and the cognitive structures they relate to, not the least important for law, including copyright law in a digital society.
