Decolonising copyright theory: justifying copyright ownership through the prism of the United Nations' developmental agenda

This chapter will argue that the norm of exclusive copyright ownership should exist within a culture of justification founded not merely upon capitalistic notions of economics or commercialisation, but upon the established link between intellectual property and its key role in furthering socio-economic developmental goals. In other words, this chapter will argue that the copyright owner ought to justify their exclusive ownership with reference to the socio-economic developmental goals of developing nations. This link between IP and socio-economic development has been explicitly recognised in the United Nations General Assembly Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development A/RES/70/1 (UN 2030 Agenda) and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (17 SDGs). It will be argued within this chapter that the UN's 2030 Agenda and 17 SDGS ought to provide the new framework within which the norm of exclusive copyright ownership is justified. In doing so, this will enable traditional knowledge to be afforded copyright protection despite the current challenge of collective ownership claims and acknowledgement of custom; foster a culture of collaboration in the IP community at a national, regional and international level; better reflect the core principles of the TRIPS Agreement; and encourage others to critically re-examine the so-called core tenements of copyright law in the West.