To read this content please select one of the options below:

Dialogues of Authenticity

Special Issue: Thinking and Rethinking Intellectual Property

ISBN: 978-1-78441-882-3, eISBN: 978-1-78441-881-6

Publication date: 14 August 2015

Abstract

Artists operating under a studio model, such as Andy Warhol, have frequently been described as reducing their work to statements of authorship, indicated by the signature finally affixed to the work. By contrast, luxury goods manufacturers decry as inauthentic and counterfeit the handbags produced during off-shift hours using the same materials and craftsmanship as the authorized goods produced hours earlier. The distinction between authentic and inauthentic often turns on nothing more than a statement of authorship. Intellectual property law purports to value such statements of authenticity, but no statement has value unless it is accepted as valid by its audience, a determination that depends on shared notions of what authenticity means as well as a common understanding of what authenticity designates.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Kerry Abrams, Mark Badger, Lionel Bently, Jeff Bozman, Stacey Dogan, Rebecca Eisenberg, Trotter Hardy, Brian Hulse, Jessica Litman, Arthur Knight, Bill McGeveran, Mark McKenna, Nate Oman, Zahr Said, Jessica Silbey, Jason Solomon, Chris Sprigman, Kara Swanson, Jane Yakowitz, the attendees at the 2012 Blackstone Lecture at William & Mary Law School and the 2012 Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, and the participants in workshops at Northeastern University School of Law, Notre Dame Law School, the Center for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge, the University of Michigan Law School, and the Law & Humanities Workshop at the University of Virginia School of Law for helpful comments and suggestions on this and related projects. Thanks also to John Alford, Patrick Berry, and Stefan Oehrlein for research assistance.

Citation

Heymann, L.A. (2015), "Dialogues of Authenticity", Special Issue: Thinking and Rethinking Intellectual Property (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 67), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-433720150000067002

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited