U.S. Global Hegemony in Intellectual Property and the Politics of Piracy and Resistance

What is it about?

To provide a global context in understanding the persistence of media piracy in emerging economies such as the Philippines and Vietnam, this chapter broadly describes the ongoing politics of hegemony and resistance in the global intellectual property (IP) trade between the United States and China and economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Primarily relying on documentary evidence and applying the hegemony, relational, and social resistance theories, it investigates briefly how the United States gains hegemonic power in the field of IP through the cultural mechanism of law in multilateral, regional, and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with the aid of U.S.-dominated multilateral institutions. It paints a global economic order with the United States occupying a privileged position at one end as the leading producer and exporter of IP goods and services in the emerging global creative economy, particularly in the fastest-growing Asia Pacific region, and China and piracy-laden members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with trade ties with China such as the Philippines and Vietnam opposing this hegemony through piracy and resistance strategies on the other end. Contrary to the popular assessments of jurisprudence and industry-driven antipiracy campaigns which paint the piracy problem as simple case of theft and criminality or “cracks in law enforcement system,” this chapter argues otherwise and views piracy, particularly media piracy, as a form of social resistance or the “Weapons of the Weak” (Scott 1985) of IP-consuming countries against the US control of the global IP trade. For resisting countries, stricter IPR regime stifles technology transfer and harms their informal economy which generates national income and employment for their poor, migrants, and unemployed. Seen from this perspective, media piracy in the Asia Pacific region and the ASEAN, particularly in the Philippines and Vietnam, is more than just a theft of intellectual creation but a manifestation of an ongoing active and passive resistance against the U.S. hegemony in the global copyright trade.

Featured Image

Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash