Below you can access my Ph.D. thesis. A brief summary of each chapter is provided. Any and all feedback regarding this work is greatly appreciated.

Acknowledgements (pdf)

Bibliography(pdf)

Glossary (pdf)

Introduction (pdf)

Chapter 1 (pdf)

Chapter 1 establishes the need for a theory that can cope with the relational implications of the expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation. This chapter provides the first clear thematic overview of the literature of music and copyright. Previous approaches to 'music and copyright', it is argued, can be roughly categorised into five approaches: descriptive, sponsorial, revisionist, sociohistorical, and analytic. Each of these tends to fall into the trap of a damaging discursive complicity if used to critically analyse situations of 'music and copyright'. None are adequate to the analysis of the relational implications of law, intellectual property, copyright, and performing rights. Neither, then, do I find them adequate for my assessment of the expansion of IMRO.

In this thesis, then, a sixth approach is required, which is here termed retheorising. There are two elements to this approach. The first, counterinduction, frees up the conceptual terrain by rejecting orthodox assumptions. This is done with a view to elaborating hypotheses that are inconsistent with generally accepted but inadequate points of view. The second element is the emergence of theory, in which new sets of assumptions emerge from the theoretical uncertainty engendered by counterinduction. This thesis retheorizes 'music and copyright' in and through an emergent analysis of the expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation during the period 1995-2000. In so doing, this thesis presents the first monographic analysis of the organisation that is not primarily economic in orientation.

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Chapters 2&3

Chapter 2 begins this examination. It describes the central operating concerns of the Irish Music Rights Organisation. These depend almost entirely on a successful programme of performing rights licensing. A performing right is a statutory right analogous to copyright. This chapter also describes how the organisation is allowed to undertake these licensing operations on the basis of an economic monopoly in the Irish state. IMRO members attained independence for their organisation in 1995. In the same year, the activities of the organisation received important official sanction on the basis of two important rulings. The first was passed down from the Dublin District Court and confirmed IMRO's authority to collect royalties for its members. The second ruling was delivered by the Irish Competition Authority, and cleared IMRO of accusations of monopoly abuse. These rulings provided legal precedent and official legitimation, supporting the de facto and de jure monopoly position of the Irish Music Rights Organisation.

Chapter 3 extends this examination. It follows the Irish Music Rights Organisation in the achievement of hegemony. By hegemony is meant the unquestioned authority of the monopolistic operations of the Irish Music Rights Organisation, insofar as they proceed with governmental and legislative support. This chapter establishes that expansion is undoubtedly the dominant feature of IMRO's activities during the period 1995-2000. This expansion was, however, often vigorously opposed. The chapter focuses on disputes between the Irish Music Rights Organisation and both primary schools and the Vintners' Association of Ireland. This examination discloses what we might call a 'cycle of expansion', that is, a cycle of expansion, resistance, legitimation, and further expansion. The cycle ran as follows. The Irish Music Rights Organisation would lay claim to a domain of jurisdiction. Resistance would then be offered to that claim. However, representatives of IMRO would successfully secure legitimating support from official governmental and legislative quarters, and expansion would continue with further claims of jurisdiction. By 1998 the Irish Music Rights Organisation had successfully achieved a number of important legal decisions and strategic alliances that effectively ended disputes and established an hegemony which underpinned all subsequent moves to expand the interests of the organisation.

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Chapter 4 (.pdf)
Chapter 4 (.doc)

Chapter 4 provides a further illustration of the expansionary dynamic of the Irish Music Rights Organisation during the period 1995-2000. Using the structural backdrop of the 'cycle of expansion', this chapter follows IMRO's expansion as it impacted upon the domain of what is considered 'Irish traditional music'. The claims of the performing rights organisation were met with fierce resistance. Widespread anger and confusion arose among supporters of 'traditional music' amidst fears of legislative enclosure. The cycle of expansion in this regard is especially illustrated by the case of the national traditional music body, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ, or 'Comhaltas'), and, in particular, by the statements and actions of the Ard-Stiúrthóir (Director-General) of CCÉ, Labhrás Ó Murchú. In the space of two years, the official position of Comhaltas moved from one of absolute non-involvement with the Irish Music Rights Organisation to one which embraced the policies of IMRO by the signing of a contractual agreement. By the end of 1998, all official dispute between IMRO and Comhaltas had been quashed. The cycle of expansion clearly characterises IMRO's activities from 1995-2000.

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Chapter 5 (.pdf)
Chapter 5 (.doc)

Where Chapters 2-4 are primarily descriptive in orientation, Chapter 5 offers an explanatory framework for the expansionary dynamic of the Irish Music Rights Organisation, drawn from the work of economist John Kenneth Galbraith. This is the some of the earliest research to use the work of Galbraith to provide an explanatory basis for empirical case study analysis. It has already been established that the dominant feature of IMRO's activities from 1995-2000 is expansion. Galbraith identifies expansion as one of the defining features of firms that conform to what he calls the "Planning System". Modern corporations, Galbraith argues, do not so much respond to the market as control the market environment in which they operate. Firms in the Planning System, then, can be characterised by a general and pervasive tendency towards the achievement of control. Here this is understood as a general organisational tendency towards the elimination of uncertainty.

In this chapter, correlations are drawn between certain political features of the Irish Music Rights Organisation and Galbraith's Planning System model. It is argued that the expansionary dynamic of IMRO is underpinned, then, by a general and pervasive tendency towards the achievement of control and the elimination of uncertainty. Galbraith makes the case that analyses based on neo-classical economics are inadequate to understand the political dynamics of such firms. His own analysis lays bare the political strategies employed by such firms. Similarly, use of Galbraith's insights allows us to see the political dynamics of organisational operation within the Irish Music Rights Organisation. In particular, it becomes clear that the existence and operation of IMRO rests entirely on widespread acceptance of the organisation's claims to authority and jurisdiction.

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Chapter 6 (.pdf)
Chapter 6 (.doc)

Chapter 6 undertakes an analysis of the character of the authoritative claims of the Irish Music Rights Organisation. It is argued that the claims of the organisation can be understood in the light of Mikhail Bakhtin's characterisation of the "authoritative word" or as "monologic authority". Such authority gains its power from its presumed incontrovertibility, in the face of which is expected unconditional allegiance. This is authority consistent with the expectation of eliminated uncertainty, authority understood as the provision of certitude. IMRO's authority is often assumed to be unquestionable because it is understood to be based on the natural, inevitable, universal, and unchallengeable principles of copyright law. To question that authority is to question the existence of the organisation itself.

In this chapter, the claims of the organisation are undermined. They are rendered visible as claims by turning to literature within the fields of critical legal studies and the sociology of law. It is argued that the workings of law are not separated from social life, that they are neither value-free nor politically neutral. Furthermore, the logic, discourses, and practices of law, intellectual property, copyright, and performing rights are neither natural inevitable, nor necessary. Nevertheless, they continue to play a crucial role in our experience of meaning, power, and expectation. Our unquestioning acceptance of the presence and activities of the Irish Music Rights Organisation structures our expectations, thereby guiding and shaping our lives. In this chapter, then, we undermine the authority of IMRO and assert that the expansion of IMRO has relational implications for the character of our social relationships, for the way we live our lives.

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Chapter 7 (.pdf)
Chapter 7 (.doc)

Chapter 8 (.pdf)
Chapter 8 (.doc)

Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 provide the theoretical foundation for this claim. These chapters are perhaps the most important from the perspective of retheorising. It is here that an alternative set of assumptions is provided. These new assumptions allow us to undertake an analysis of the relational implications of the expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation as an example of a particular character of social and political relations, viewed from the perspective of humans-among-humans. To this end, these chapters unfold a theory of "negotiation". Negotiation, it is argued, is constituted by four elements, which are explained in depth in the course of the chapter:

· The ever-presence of uncertainty
· The emergence of certainty
· Social Interaction
· Expectation


Chapter 7 presents the first two elements of negotiation. Uncertainty, it is argued, is a constant and dynamic aspect of our experience of consciousness. Certainty also, it is suggested, is also a constant and dynamic aspect of our experience of consciousness. Our experience of certainty is, then, suffused with our experience of uncertainty. The understanding of certainty here is contrasted with understandings in which certainty is equated with certitude, or the absence of doubt. Drawing upon the field of neuropsychology, our experience of certainty is here posited as emergent, cumulative, adaptive, individually negotiated, and structured.

In Chapter 8 the final two elements of negotiation are presented: social interaction, and expectation. In this chapter the argument is extended, from an emphasis on the physiological or neural correlates for our experience of uncertainty and certainty to issues of power and expectation. Social interaction is presented as the 'cauldron of power' in our discussion of negotiation, referring to the relational environment in which we find ourselves. The power analyses of Michel Foucault are extended by drawing upon the discussions in Chapter 7 concerning uncertainty and certainty. Expectation is then offered as perhaps the most crucial aspect of negotiation. Drawing on the field of social psychology, it is argued that the notion of expectation provides a meeting point for the understandings of uncertainty, certainty, and social interaction that have already been presented. By focusing on the interrelationship of the four elements of negotiation we can come closer to an appreciation of how it is that law, intellectual property, copyright, performing rights, and the monopolistic hegemony of the Irish Music Rights Organisation can guide our experience of meaning and power, and thereby shape our lives.

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Chapter 9 (.pdf)
Chapter 9 (.doc)

Chapter 9 provides an analysis of the relational implications of the expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation in and through the presentation of a theoretical framework for the analysis of enclosure. This chapter first clarifies some of the dominant understandings of the term 'enclosure'. Simplifying in the extreme, 'enclosure' refers, on the one hand, to 'land, property, and the commons'. On the other, it refers to 'resources, intellectual property, and the commons'. Almost invariably, enclosure is understood in terms of 'enclosure of'. In this thesis, however, we move towards an understanding of enclosure without taking recourse to the notion of the commons.

It is argued that the analysis of IMRO's expansion allows us to identify three key features in the process and practices of enclosure: framing, expansion, and consolidation, each of which is explored in the light of the theory of negotiation. The framing of enclosure, it is suggested, is constituted by three operations of power: monologic generalisation, closure, and separation. The expansion of enclosure can be analysed as comprising two elements: representation and resistance. The consolidation of enclosure is understood to have three elements: displacement, legitimation, and hegemony. Through this theory of enclosure we can arrive at an appreciation of wide-ranging social and poitical implications of the expansion of the Irish Music Rights Organisation. IMRO's expansion discloses a particular modality of power relations, which we here understand through the features of enclosure. Enclosure, then, is not an abstract process, but, rather, the process and practices of enclosure implicate us all in a call to greater understandings of authority, power, meaning, and expectation in our lives. This is the first systematic theoretical exposition of the process of enclosure without taking recourse to the notion of the commons. This chapter also offers new understandings of 'frames', 'expansion', 'authority', 'representation', 'resistance', 'legitimation', and 'hegemony'.

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Conclusion (.pdf)
Conclusion (.doc)

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