Market, Culture, and Open-Access. European Copyright and the Renewal of a Historical Clash of Values in the Digital Age

Copyright bares an inner tension between cultural and market values: it historically oscillated between empowering creators through the market and protecting them from the market. How does this tension play in the digital age? To tackle this question, this paper look at the salient parliamentary debates on the 2019 “copyright in the digital single market” directive, framed as a victory of culture against the market. We contrast this perspective by highlighting that, following the digitalization of the economy, a new set of values entered the actors’ repertoire: open-access values. Thus, three competing sets of values framed MEPs’ interventions: culture, market, and open-access. We argue that in the digital age, the conflict between market and culture that structures copyright policies is rebalanced to fit in a classical market regulation dilemma. Culture values, supporting market regulation to fight GAFA’s monopolies, are opposed to open-access values, supporting a free market to encourage digital innovation. Thus, both sets of values, whereas historically and socially developed in opposition to economic incentives, are mobilized to defend different market approaches (more vs. fewer barriers to entry).