ABSTRACT
More than a decade on from the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions entered into force, it has become imperative to know how far this new international treaty calling for better cultural balance between developed and developing countries has succeeded in transforming international flows of trade in cultural goods and services. Based on data from public and private sources, this chapter demonstrates the powerful control developed countries’ cultural industries still exert today, in the context of the adaptation of the principles of the Convention to the landscape drawn by digital technologies. The following pages also consider some of the challenges for cultural policies in the digital environment, giving special attention to the application of tax obligations to online distribution platforms of cultural content as well as to the regulation of audiovisual catalogues offered by them.
