Copyrighting Chinese media: cultural commodification in a political economic context

This dissertation documents the development of copyright in contemporary China in the context of social transformation and media growth and works to understand copyright in social and political economic perspectives. The chapters study the history of copyright, debates and conflicts in the making of the Copyright Law, copyright’s role in production and labor in media institutions, copyright control and freedom of expression in the digital environment, business strategies and copyright enforcement, criminal prosecution of copyright infringements, as well as copyright collective management. I argue that the dynamics of copyright growth in China today manifest one dimension of cultural commodification in specific global and historical contexts. The development of intellectual property is shaped by, and contributes to, transforming global and Chinese political economy. Still unfolding, the Chinese copyright system has shown distinct pro-business and pro-property biases which work to the detriment of media labor and the public