| dc.description.abstract | This thesis undertakes a reappraisal of non-Western, postcolonial perspectives of copyright by drawing on the experience of Thailand, a country whose independent status is both exceptional and marginal to the colonised-coloniser frame of reference. Bringing together area studies, decolonial studies, film studies, and legal sociology, the thesis rethinks the social meaning of copyright from the perspective of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of difference and repetition. Focusing, first, on the ambiguity of modernity as Western in Thai imagination, the thesis articulates a critique of postcolonial binarism to shed light on complex and persisting relations of domination and the role played by knowledge production. Like former colonies, Siam (now Thailand) was brought into the colonial world order and had to prove its ‘civilised’ status. But this globalising process was not entirely one of Western imposition. Western knowledge—including the legal concept of copyright—sat at the nexus of Western colonialism and Thai absolutism. Siam’s quest for civilisation marked the intersection between the external threat of Western colonisation and the dynastic project of internal colonisation. This historical dynamic still resonates today in the way the globalised IP system and the discourse of development are implicated in the persistence of Thai authoritarianism. Shifting the focus, then, to contemporary politics of development, the thesis challenges prevailing presumptions about development that inform public discourse on film and copyright protection. The thesis draws attention to the social nature of creative production and the creativity of community relations, as particularly reflected in the changing role of film audiences. In doing so, a new image of copyright emerges, and it is one in which copyright makes a resourceful community. Utilising Roger Cotterrell’s law- and-community approach, the thesis puts forward a concept of ‘community resource’ to move copyright law away from the paradigm of original expression towards fostering trusting relations. | en_US |
