Copyright and creativity: changing paradigms and the implications for intellectual property and the music industry

Copyright law is entangled with the Romantic conception of the creative process. So is the music industry. This Romantic conception has been challenged more recently to the point where there has been a paradigmatic shift of the conception of creative activity within the research community. This change has not as yet occurred for popular conceptions of creativity, nor has the law changed its basis. Once these older views are substituted with the recent work on cultural production and confluence models of creativity, the implication for rights-holders in the music industry may be significant, yet remain dependent upon the industry and others' general acceptance of these recent creativity research findings. Examples of the changing structures of intellectual property and what this shift might mean for songwriters in particular can be drawn from the struggles of Lindy Morrison, former Go-Betweens drummer, and the attitude to songwriting developed by writers such as Paul Mac and Daniel Johns.