The false turn of digital technology
James Griffin · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023
This chapter considers the development of cultural biological works under existing legal regulation, which is focused on the characteristics of digital technology. Digital computers are interacted with in a machinic manner, mirroring proprietary protections given under intellectual property law. It is submitted that this is a ‘false turn’ in legal regulation. The primary form of legal protection is copyright law. It is the contention of this book that as the world has become more informatised, we have an increasing expanse of copyright regulation. Indeed, copyright regulation has considerably expanded as a consequence of the expansion of information technologies. This is why we increasingly see the use of copyright and watermarking technologies in the use of information technologies. It is argued that these are machinic in nature, which conflicts with the notion of cultural biological works and biological technologies. Nonetheless, this book argues that we will increasingly see the use of these copyright and watermarking technologies in the biological context (for example, the use of genetic use restriction technologies (GURTS) which are akin to digital rights management (DRM)). Copyright and watermarking technologies are one of the foremost means by which biological entities are likely to be regulated in in the future, if not already so in the present. The chapter outlines why this is likely to become more significant than, say, existing patent law. The consequences are considered, in terms of whether existing legal protection should require a copyright element or not and whether or not other regulations, such as those governing bioprinting, will lead to favoured forms of biological cultural works.