Audiences in Tradition: Traditional Knowledge and the Public Domain

Abstract

In the discourse on access to knowledge and the vitality of the ‘public domain’, the debate over traditional knowledge seems to be dominated by the prior and governing concerns of a global knowledge of a global public. In other words, traditional knowledge was, and to an extent continues to be, interpreted within the dominant legal and social discourse as common heritage rather than creative or personal knowledge. This chapter examines traditional knowledge in the context of the notion of the public domain, the global "public" and the questions raised beyond the mere criteria by which intellectual property is recognised.

Keywords: Traditional knowledge, public domain, public, intellectual property

JEL Classification: K19, O30, O34