Test for echo: competition law and the music industries from a business model perspective

The thesis asks whether there is a role for competition law and policy in the music industries. It is argued that there is a need for updated competition policy in order to safeguard both end consumer welfare and the competitive process in these markets, characterised by fast-paced developments and business model innovation. Indeed, the past two decades saw the music industries undergo seismic changes, as even the term ‘music industries’ was not in use as such before the advent of the internet era and the decline in sales of recordings in physical format. Soon it became obvious that the traditional music industry’s end consumers had chosen to migrate to alternative methods of consumption, complementing and substituting between several products for music, such as the digital format, the live concert ticket, and the overall ‘music experience’. End consumers chose to completely by-pass the product on offer, meaning the recording of popular music in physical format, as provided top-down by a few multinational record companies, which the thesis identifies as an oligonomy. As alternative business models emerged in the music industries, the members of the oligonomy became followers of end consumer demand, remaining stuck in their notion that the end consumer remains the passive, mass market. Addressing this era as an era of market failure helps to identify the role of the end consumer within the business model of the music industry and to understand emerging trends and patterns in the music industries. Indeed, technological and copyright developments in the late nineteenth century enabled the hardware industries to morph into the recorded music industry, operating under the same business model of copyright exploitation. It follows that the market deriving from this business model is a market prone to monopolisation, resulting in a homogeneous product, designed and delivered top-down to the mass market. The resulting product was not only foreclosed by the few members of the oligonomy, but the operating business model made it impossible for the competition authorities to justify concerns. When the technology allowed for it, the creeping market failure came to the limelight and the end consumer started by-passing the oligonomy to gain access to the foreclosed content, generating consumer demand-driven business models. This translated into business model innovation. To illustrate, the thesis investigates the trial-and-error relationship between the competition authorities of the US, the EU, the UK and the old business model, addressing the failure to appreciate the bottleneck around the creative output that was being created, and the need to safeguard consumer welfare. To compare, the thesis also examines cases in the new business model era, observing the stance of competition authorities towards consumer demand generated business models. The thesis concludes with the affirmation of the need to design welfare enhancing competition policy, which places the end consumer in the forefront. To achieve this, the thesis proposes the consultation of the relevant business model literature

What can legal geography do for the study of regions?

Legal geography as a subdiscipline of human geography has been progressively gaining momentum across geographic and legal fora. Legal geography examines the co-constitutivity of law, power, and place, and has been employed to explore issues of spatial justice across contexts and scales, from the international, where national borders, armed conflict, human rights, and climate change, and cultural heritage are discussed, to the national, regional, and, then the micro level, where geography is used as a way of appreciating the spatial dimensions of formal and informal justice (e.g., courtroom geographies and geographies of home). However, it has yet to gain full scale recognition in a regional studies context, even though it has an important role to play, when it comes to appreciating the gap between laws and policies on the one hand and the law’s place-felt impact on the other

A chronotopic evaluation of Autonomous Rog: the spatiotemporalities of a “quasi-public” urban squat

The paper explores an urban squat in Ljubljana, Slovenia, following a chronotopic narrative approach. Urban squats often represent a manifestation of alternative notions of who belongs where, when, and why, questions that matter when issues pertaining to their legal status are raised. We examine the case of Autonomous Rog, a formerly squatted bike factory area in the city centre of Ljubljana that the Supreme Court of Slovenia described as ‘quasi-public’. The paper welcomes the Slovenian Supreme Court’s ability to appreciate the social, spatiotemporal, and material elements that make up this idiotropic type of urban space, moving beyond the confines of human-centred legal analysis. We present the journey of Autonomous Rog through three distinctive chronotopic viewpoints, in order to accentuate the subversive human and material properties that found their way into the Slovenian legal system, as we reflect on the law’s ability to embrace spatiotemporal representations in an urban context

The Value of Autonomous Rog: Culture, citizenship, participation

Often considered as an alternative to established norms within the urban context, autonomous places – and squats in particular - have long been hubs of opposition against the mainstream economic, political, cultural and social manifestations of urban life. For almost fifteen years, Autonomous Rog was an important alternative hub in the city of Ljubljana, an urban experiment with a wealth of grassroots activity ranging from activism to artistic expression, to music and parties, as well as athletic events. Throughout its existence, debates regarding the value and significance of Autonomous Rog for the city of Ljubljana emerged, attracting widespread public and media attention. However, such discussions mostly emphasise what was wrong with Autonomous Rog, or how defective and troublesome its occupation of the former bicycle factory was.Thus, the purpose of this report is to present an objective evaluation and insight of the content, activities, and the communities involved in the occupation of Autonomous Rog from its inception in 2006 until its demise earlier in 2021. The aim of this report is to illustrate that Autonomous Rog produced alternative types of value within the context of the creative city narrative that: 1) were not on offer by either institutional or private actors; 2) contributed to the recognition of the city of Ljubljana as an important creative and cultural hub; and 3) benefited the citizens of Ljubljana and marginalised groups unable to find comparable activities elsewhere. The report focuses on research conducted between 2016 and 2021 and documents the latest stages of Rog’s occupation, the governance and management structures of Autonomous Rog, the internal/ external conflicts and the legal battle of Rog users with the municipality of Ljubljana, and the development of social and spatial value from the communities of Rog within the context of the creative and cultural boom of Ljubljana. Through our analysis, we demonstrate that Autonomous Rog was one of the last providers of accessible space within the centre that was both open and affordable, and supported the cultural and creative revitalisation of Ljubljana. We posit that Autonomous Rog was a pioneer of social, cultural, leisure, and creative activities that did not fit into the entrepreneurial, for-profit narrative that resulted from the gentrification of the city. The failure to recognise the non-monetary and intangible value produced in Autonomous Rog has resulted in the current dismissal of the knowledge and social value produced there by the City of Ljubljana. The report concludes with suggestions for immediate actions regarding the future of Rog and for the continuation of progressive and inclusive programmes with a bottom- up ethos, as well as systemic actions for the preservation of remaining autonomous places in Ljubljana and elsewhere

Normalising jurisdictional heterotopias through place branding : the cases of Christiania and Metelkova

This paper explores the political dimensions of place branding as a path to normalisation for areas where a paradoxical relationship with the law exists, places that we coin “jurisdictional heterotopias” borrowing from Foucauldian literature. We posit that place branding plays a fundamental role in facilitating scale jumping in the otherwise vertically aligned legal space, a hierarchy designed to exclude spatial multiplicity from its premise. By examining the role of place branding in such areas, we endeavour to understand and appreciate the selective application of the law, the perpetuation of unregulated and illegal activity, as well as the place – specificity of legal practice. Ultimately, we argue that strong place branding associations permit the engulfment of this type of heterotopias in the “mainstream” leading to their normalisation; such a normalisation results not only in the acceptance of their uniqueness by the institutional elements, but also in the potential nullification of the liberties their communities advocate

Sherlock Holmes and the Mysteries of Copyright

Recent litigation in America has brought the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, front and centre once again. And even though the case does not touch on Scots Law, it would be more than appropriate to address the issues raised by this case against a picturesque, seemingly mysterious, foggy Edinburgh background. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have wanted it this way, make no mistake about it