ABSTRACT
The global popularity of reggae is what has made it a focus of government policy. Reggae is both a private endeavour of individual musicians and a matter of Jamaican national pride. This chapter explores ownership of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the cultural economy. It highlights the fraught nature of copyright in the global cultural economy. Many things created in the cultural economy, including music, are intangible and non-rivalrous goods. The rise of the global cultural economy in a neoliberal political economy has made copyright increasingly important. The chapter argues that case of Popcaan and Lucas DiPasquale illustrates forms of cultural appropriation in conjunction with national or communal claims to ownership. Laurence Helfer argues that there is a tension between the protection of cultural rights and copyright. Legal scholar Helfer also acknowledges the tension between intellectual property rights and cultural and human rights.
