[ICTs-and-Society] CfP JoPP: Peer production, disruption and the law

[Angela Daly]

CFP - Special issue of the Journal of Peer Production

Peer production, disruption and the law*

Editors: Steve Collins, Macquarie University and Angela Daly,
Swinburne University of Technology & European University Institute

The disruption caused by new technologies and non-conventional methods
of organisation have posed challenges for the law, confronting
regulators with the need to balance justice with powerful interests.
Experience from the “disruptions” of the late 20th century has shown
that the response from incumbent industries can lead to a period of
intense litigation and lobbying for laws that will maintain the status
quo. For example, following its “Napster moment”, the music industry
fought to maintain its grip on distribution channels through increased
copyright enforcement and the longer copyright terms it managed to
extract from the legislative process. The newspaper industry has
similarly seen its historical revenue stream of classified ads
disrupted by more efficient online listings, and responded to its own
failure to capitalise on online advertising by launching legal
campaigns against Google News in various European countries.

Though the law as it stands may not be well-equipped to deal with
disruptive episodes, the technological innovations of the last twenty
years have created an environment that generates disruption. The
Internet, the Web and networked personal computers have converged into
the ubiquitous post-PC media device, leaving twentieth century
paradigms of production, consumption and distribution under
considerable threat. The latest technology to be added to this group
of disruptive innovations may be 3D-printing, which in recent times
has become increasingly available and accessible to users in developed
economies, whilst the manufacturing capacity of 3D-printers has
dramatically grown. Although current offerings on the market are far
from a Star Trek-like “replicator”, the spectre of disruption has once
again arrived, with the prospect of 3D-printed guns inspiring a moral
panic and raising questions of gun control, regulation, jurisdiction
and effective control. In addition, 3D-printing raises a number of
issues regarding intellectual property, going far beyond the copyright
problems that file-sharing brought about due to its production of
physical objects.

This special issue of the Journal of Peer Production calls for papers
that deal with the intersection of peer production, disruptive
technologies and the law. Potential topics include, but are not
restricted to:

●      The threat posed by peer production to legacy industries

●      The regulation of disruptive technologies through the rule of
law or embedded rights management

●      Lobbying strategies of incumbent players to stymie disruptive
technologies

●      Emergent economies or practices as a result of disruptive technologies

●      Extra-legal norm formation in peer production communities
around disruptive technologies

●      Historical perspectives on the legal status of collaborative projects

●      Critical legal approaches to technology, disruption and peer production

●      The role and ability of the law (which differs across
jurisdictions) in regulating autonomous production

●      The resilience of law in the face of social and technological change

●      The theories and assumptions which continue to underpin laws
rendered obsolete by social and technological change

500-word abstracts are due by 15th November 2013 and should be sent to
disruptlawissue at peerproduction.net. Accepted submissions will be
notified during December 2013 and full papers are due by 12th May
2014. The issue will be published in January 2015. Submissions will be
peer reviewed according to JoPP review policies. See
http://peerproduction.net/about/submissions/ for article types and
guidelines.
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