Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions in a Digital Environment. Preface

In the face of increasing globalisation, there is a pressing need for innovative trans-disciplinary analyses of the value of traditional cultural expressions (TCE) that also suggest appropriate protection mechanisms for them. The book to which this preface belongs combines approaches from history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and law, and charts previously untravelled paths for developing new policy tools and legal designs that go beyond conventional copyright models. It reflects also upon the specific features of the digital environment, which, despite enhancing the risks of misappropriation of traditional knowledge and creativity, may equally offer some opportunities for revitalising indigenous peoples' values and provide for the sustainability of TCE.

The Impact of Property Condition Disclosure Laws on Housing Prices: Evidence from an Event Study using Propensity Scores

We examine the impact of seller's Property Condition Disclosure Law on the residential real estate values. A disclosure law may address the information asymmetry in housing transactions shifting of risk from buyers and brokers to the sellers and raising housing prices as a result. We combine propensity score techniques from the treatment effects literature with a traditional event study approach. We assemble a unique set of economic and institutional attributes for a quarterly panel of 291 US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and 50 US States spanning 21 years from 1984 to 2004 is used to exploit the MSA level variation in house prices. The study finds that the average seller may be able to fetch a higher price (about three to four percent) for the house if she furnishes a state-mandated seller.s property condition disclosure statement to the buyer. When we compare the results from parametric and semi-parametric event analyses, we find that the semi-parametric or the propensity score analysis generals moderately larger estimated effects of the law on housing prices.

Real Property, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1896 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: The Survey Districts of North Harbour & Blueskin, Lower Harbour West, North East Valley, Upper Harbour West, Tomahawk, Sawyers Bay, Andersons Bay, Portobello Bay, Otago Peninsula & Upper Harbour East, drawn by G.P. Wilson, April 1896. It was published by N.Z. Lands and Survey in 1896. Covers the Dunedin region, New Zealand. Scale [ca. 1:63,360]. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM Zone 59S, meters, WGS 1984) projected coordinate system. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as property lot and block numbers, boundaries of survey districts and blocks, boroughs, townships and estates, drainage, selected roads, railroads and stations, selected buildings and industry locations, cemeteries, shoreline features, docks and wharves, and more. Relief shown by spot heights.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.