The Use of Copyright in Digital Times: A Study of How Artists Exercise Their Rights in Norway

How do artists use copyright to further their creative ends? To approach this question, this article focuses on the relationship between artists’ appropriation of digital technology and exertion of their rights. In particular, it relates the evolving range of production tools and distribution services to the ways in which artists currently create musical works and seek to exploit their economic as well as moral rights. Interviews with eighteen artists in Norway reveal a series of technology-mediated challenges to the ownership of one’s work, the recognition of one’s authorship, and one’s remuneration that demonstrate the need for open discussion of the ethical aspects of copyright in music.