Commodity Relations and the Forces of Production: The Theft and Defence of Intellectual Property

In 1993, the info-media companies, Philips and Sony brought their new digital audio recording systems (Digital Compact Cassette and the Mini Disc respectively) onto the market. Since both systems can make perfect digital copies of Compact Discs, this will dramatically affect the profitability of the pre-recorded music industry, which is a repeat of what occurred when audio cassettes were first introduced in the 1960s. The inability to enforce restrictions on copyright or patent infringement is considered a global problem by many firms in the so-called “sunrise industries†. This article situates the problem by presenting and analysing the commodity relations of the pre-recorded music industry within the framework of Marxist methodology. The methodology provides for unique insights into this problem for the capitalist mode of production and points to the possibilities for further research. A secondary, but methodologically important purpose of the article is to widen the potential for Marxist analysis itself by extending attention on the commodity relations-consumption component of the circuit of capital, an area given meager attention by Marxists in the past.