Challenging the Public Domain: Protection of traditional cultural expressions in the light of retroactive copyright protection

Since as long ago as the 1960s, there have been attempts to extend legal protection to traditional cultural expressions.

This book examines whether the introduction of such protection is justified, taking into account that granting exclusive rights in existing creations inevitably diminishes the public domain and the freedoms that derive from it.

As traditional cultural expressions are a subset of copyright subject matter, the central part of the analysis deals with the justification for copyright and past instances of introducing copyright protection with retroactive effect.