Communicating copyright: An exploration of copyright discourses in the digital age

The increasing incidence of illegal downloading among ordinary media consumers has cast copyright as a central component of contemporary conversations about and activities around the creative industries. Industry workers are intent on controlling copyright in the face of changing technologies, policymakers are concerned with the effect of illegal downloading on the larger cultural economy, ISPs are forced to defend their roles and responsibilities, and users are navigating morally and legally murky terrain in their pursuit of digital media.
The maintenance of copyright as the foundation on which a healthy creative industry depends is reflected in government policies such as the Digital Economy Act, but such efforts to justify copyright protection are not always successful: smaller producers, ISPs and users all offer alternative views of copyright.
This project aims to explore the complex and varied justificatory discourses about copyright within key industrial and cultural contexts.Through multimodal discourse analysis, it will shed light on the complexities of the copyright debate in the digital age by exploring why and how users, policymakers, internet service providers and producers construct, distribute and maintain ideological justifications around copyright.