Patronage and Market in the Creation of Opera Before the Institution of Intellectual Property

Have different methods of financing the performing arts had an effect on thequality or diversity of thestock of works to be performed? This paper contrasts experience in the HolyRoman Empire and Italyfrom the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century when copyright lawsbegan to play a major rolein the economics of composition. The period 1751–1790 strongly confirmshypotheses that patron-drivenopera would be expected to be qualitatively superior to market-driven opera. Italian experience from1810–1840, however, suggests that this result cannot be generalized.     

Implications of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights for Cultural Dimensions of National Copyright Laws

Many national intellectual property laws contain provisions that reflect cultural values and have trade significance. Although cultural value defenses have generally been rejected by GATT and WTO panels, they may be more likely to succeed in intellectual property disputes because many culturally-laden rules are widely accepted in the international intellectual property arena. Moreover, intellectual products are less completely commodified than other products. Cultural economists can provide valuable insights to aid WTO in distinguishing between those culturally-laden intellectual property rules that should be or should not permitted when they have an impact on trade.     

Intellectual property and optimal copyright protection

Copyright protection, or more generally, intellectual property rights, can be regarded as a means for the stimulation of production of information goods. This paper analyses the basic problem of production and dissemination of information and the role of copyright protection as an incentive for the producers of creative works. Using a simple model, it is shown that not only a cause for limiting the extent of copyright protection does exist, but that also an argument for a minimum level of protection can be found. Even optimal copyright protection, given the restriction that production and dissemination of information goods has to be co-ordinated by a market mechanism, however, does not lead to a first-best (allocatively efficient) solution. Hence, the judgment that copyright protection is the best solution to the basic problem can be grounded only on a comparative institutional approach.Indeed, one has ample reason to despair of finding a legal tenet that governs the rights of authors and artists. There exists no legal principle by which the state is forced to grant to authors a right in their creation. They cannot claim any right thereupon. This is not to say that the state shall not award such a right. On the contrary, there is every reason to treat them like the most favoured workers, as they deliver a work that is more robust than ashlar, and bring food that does not decay...     

Fashioning the Discipline: History of Science in the European Intellectual Tradition

This paper offers personal reflections on the fashioning of the history of science in Europe. It presents the history of science as a discipline emerging in the twentieth century from an intellectual and political context of great complexity, and concludes with a plea for tolerance and pluralism in historiographical methods and approaches.Robert Fox held the chair of the history of science at Oxford University between 1988 and 2006. He has been active in a number of international organizations, including the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, of which he is a past president, and the European Society for the History of Science, whose founding president he became in 2004.     

知识分子身份认同与艺术描写的空间

在现代修辞学和文化研究的视野中 ,宗璞的短篇小说《我是谁 ?》与张贤亮的《男人的一半是女人》中的知识分子自我认同 ,在艺术描写中呈现出了不同的艺术空间。一、从文化身份认同的路径看《我是谁 ?》《我是谁 ?》的故事线索跟踪的是追问“我”的身份。文化身份 ,对于中国人来说 ,在相当漫长的时段里是极为陌生的。在巨大变故中个体的处境有所改变时 ,这种潜隐的意识往往伴随着失落或者痛苦的复杂情绪表达出来。《我是谁 ?》虽然是用第三人称叙事 ,但是“我是谁”的询问来自主人公第一人称。在故事层中这种询问是主人公以痛苦失落 ,并且希望…     

唐代家庭财产继承制度初探

中国古代自西周以来在家庭内部提倡同财共居 ,反对祖父母、父母在而别籍异财。但现实生活中绝大多数家庭在经历了由小到大的发展后都走向了分户析财的道路 ,分家析财成为成为必然的趋势。唐代社会沿用了两汉以来“诸子均分”家庭财产的传统 ,并有所变化。唐代法典及正史文献对唐代财产继承的情况记载极为简略 ,敦煌文书的发现为我们提供了这方面的真实资料。     

论中国文化的听觉审美特质

古希腊视觉中心主义的真理观奠定了相应的西方认识论范式,并促使其后的艺术美学理念逐渐向俗世的实在维度靠拢;而一向注重听觉的中国心学却始终以静、空的时间体验方式将真理的理解置入了超越于空间之上的虚无维度,以谦卑的姿态在视觉霸权的压制下顽强进行着人生归属感的寻求,也正是这种归属感型塑了中国艺术文化内敛、体恤以及高蹈的独特品性。     

Intellectual property rights and U.S. information goods exports: the role of imitation threat

Trade in information goods is particularly sensitive to the strength of intellectual property rights (IPR) and encounters an apparently different pattern of imitation threat compared with manufacturing trade, but the information goods trade–IPR nexus is less systematically investigated. This article analyzes whether and how U.S. information goods exports are sensitive to national differences in IPR protection and the degree of threat-of-imitation from the dynamic perspective. Employing the technique of instrumental variables for a dynamic panel model to consider the hysteretic effect and controlling the endogeneity problem, the empirical results show that the strength of the importing country’s IPR protection overall exhibits a trade-enhancing effect, supporting the standpoint that stronger IPR protection will induce more trade. Moreover, we adopt the piracy rate as a proxy for threat-of-imitation to examine its role on the information goods trade–IPR nexus. Empirical findings validate the prevalence of the market expansion effect wherever the degree of imitation threat of importing countries is high or low, because the technology level and production cost of reproduction are very low. It implies that the existing theory on threat-of-imitation may not apply to the information goods trade.

孔门教《诗》与《诗》之属性嬗变

春秋后期,诗从坏乐之中蝉蜕而出,诗教变乐语之教为纯粹诗教,汇入既有之德义礼治的教育传统,从附庸走向独立。《诗》属性的这一历史性嬗替乃是籍孔门重置《诗》教目的而完成的。官学下移民间,孔子设计教育造士,立四教,分四科,观念重理想、实践重事功,以《诗》为其文教教材,并赋予其不同于乐教时代的全新目的。较之于古乐官,孔子论乐不必及诗;较之于古师儒辈,孔子论诗不必及德义。一方面持续古乐官和古师儒辈的造士理想的高调;另一方面因应时代,把《诗》教落实到向社会供应达政专对、可以言、言而文的事君、事父的人材,实现了《诗》属性的独立与重置。这既体现了夫子教《诗》的时代性和实用性,又成就了《诗》新的历史功能和身份属性。     

衢州出租屋里的异国恋情

3年前,一位做外教的美国姑娘爱上了一位在出租屋安身的衢州小伙子。不久,男友患上了尿毒症。美国姑娘不离不弃,一直守护着他。她说:你若安好,便是晴天。屋内没有奢华的摆设,也没有高档的家电,除了一些并不时兴的桌椅床凳外,客厅地面上还散落着几件儿童玩具。摆在     

藏匿无数灵魂的苏州藏书楼

苏州一条条寻常的巷子,一座座旧居古宅,让人们追忆起往昔的人文荟萃。在小巷不起眼的墙门里,走出多少大名鼎鼎的文人墨客,隔着早已长出鲜苔的黛瓦粉墙,随处都有让人如雷贯耳的名字出现:潘祖荫、顾文彬、金侃、黄丕烈、吴梅,他们在阅尽了人世的千山万水后,在苏州的小巷深处,筑一安静的藏书楼,作为他们终老的归依。     

Manufacturing expedients in medieval ceramics in Apulia

A group of 51 shards of medieval polychrome glazed pottery, coming from Canosa castle archaeological site (Bari, Italy), has been investigated through surface analytical techniques, such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and elemental ones, such as Inductively Coupled Plasma–Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP–OES) and Absorption Atomic Spectroscopy (AAS) by flame and electro-thermal atomisation. The investigation was aimed at defining the elemental composition of pottery findings, identifying pigments and clarifying glaze types. The results of the analytical characterization allowed the identification of materials and technological expedients used for pottery manufacturing, highlighting original features in the production of the investigated pottery.The quantitative analysis performed on ceramic paste, glaze and painted decorations provided a significant number of results, thus enabling their effective exploitation for multivariate statistical techniques, in order to find out possible groups of pottery items with defined similarity within the samples.     

根在大陆的台湾厝

台湾人习称家为"厝",意思是安身的住处,如家宅叫"厝宅",祖家叫"祖厝",家里人叫"厝内人",房东叫"厝主",房租叫"厝租",房地产契叫"厝契",乔迁新居叫"入厝",等等。台湾所属市县含"厝"的地名相当多,这些"厝"大都是同姓人聚居的地方,联系姓氏根源与宗族关系,显示出古色古香的部落色彩。位于台南玉井、楠西间的江家古厝,是人们公认的全台湾最大且保存相当完善的闽南式传统农村聚落。江家古厝占地面积3.5公顷,保留了130多栋房屋,其中多栋有百余年历史,包括土角厝、竹编厝、铁皮     

五月节台湾扒龙船

榴花照眼红,粽子扑鼻香,又是一年端午节。节日前夕,我家不少乡亲从对岸台湾回到闽南祖家过节。在与台湾房亲交谈中,我得知台湾和祖家闽南一样,同称端午节为“五月节”。台湾四面环海,水域辽阔,岛内还有一些河川,端午节最有气氛、最为热闹的便是“扒龙船”（龙舟竞赛）,闽南台湾方言“扒”与“爬”同音,是划的意思。