Toward an Overriding Norm in Copyright : Sign Wealth

This essay starts by critically contrasting normative principles that have historically guided the development of laws of copyright and of authors’ rights. Reconceptualizing notions key to these distinct types of laws, it then elaborates a new normative principle, aimed at enhancing sign wealth, in order to redirect lawmaking in the field. In particular, it redefines the subjects in which such laws vest rights, the objects that such laws protect, and core authors’ rights themselves. Authors are recognized as creatively reworking culture, works are analyzed as global signs, and rights are focused on acts of dissemination. Our new and overriding sign-wealth norm is in turn illustrated as it is applied to hard cases that have been typically endemic in the field. For example, the principle helps resolve issues of the scope and priority of economic and moral rights and of their limitations