Writers in information and communication studies often assume the stability of
objects under investigation: network nodes, databases, information. Legal writers in
the intellectual property tradition often assume that cultural artefacts exist as objects
prior to being governed by copyright law. Both assumptions are fallacious. This
introduction conceptualises the relationship of legal form and cultural symbol.
Starting from an understanding of copyright law as part of systems of production (in
the sense of Peterson 1976), it is argued that copyright law constructs the artefacts it
seeks to regulate as objects that can be bought and sold. In doing so, the legal and
aesthetic logic of cultural symbols may clash, as in the case of digital music (the
central focus of this special issue)
