Copyright and (Dis)harmonisation: Can Developing Nations Prioritise Their Own Public Good in a Global Copyright Hegemony?

Global harmonisation of intellectual property rights, especially those related to copyright, has made great strides in the last few decades. It is often touted as the best approach to global prosperity based on knowledge, its dissemination and its treatment as a quantifiable asset. Two approaches are often studied in scholastic examination of the subject of extending or constraining the growth of more rights over creations of the mind. The first being that harmonisation is good for overall public benefit, and the second that such harmonisation steamrolls over the best interests of smaller, less economically powerful, nations. This chapter argues that such small nations who have had very little say in the development of global intellectual property frameworks can carefully craft laws and exceptions, within the strictures defined by the global hegemony, to their own specific benefit.