ABSTRACT
The existence and/or exercise of intellectual property rights over digitized cultural artefacts is a post-colonial problem because it raises the spectre of a second neo-imperialist misappropriation of the cultural heritage/property of others. The standard discourse around the destruction of cultural heritage is largely confined to a concern about the physical destruction of monumental, and thus immoveable, objects and is almost exclusively about tangible things. The hypocrisy of using this concept to perpetuate power imbalances that continue to create vast differences in the political, cultural and material circumstances of those falling within its definitional scope should not be overlooked. The idea of authenticity, as the opposite of the fake, is a foundational concept in both intellectual property and cultural heritage discourse; and it is also a many-headed hydra. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage perhaps does a better job of understanding the indivisibility of bio-cultural forms.
