ABSTRACT
In protecting culture, intellectual property (IP) laws appear to stand apart from culture. However, cultural and legal scholars have shown that IP laws are in fact cultural in reflecting very particular ideas about what kinds of work can be protected legally. This chapter outlines the shift from direct economic, military and political dominance of colonial territories to less direct forms of dominance in the second half of the twentieth century. It then briefly outlines the history of IP laws, focusing on their cultural specificity. The chapter describes that history in the context of the history of direct and indirect dominance of the global South during and after colonization. It also discusses the increasing importance of IP in the regimes through which dominance occurs as knowledge, information, and culture have become important economic commodities. The chapter outlines the history of cultural property (CP) laws as an additional site for the protection of culture.
