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Are intellectual property rights like other property rights? More and more of the world's knowledge and information is under the control of intellectual property owners. What are the justifications for this? What are the implications for power and for justice of allowing this property form to range across social life? Can we look to traditional property theory to supply the answers or do we need a new approach? Intellectual property rights relate to abstract objects - objects like algorithms and DNA sequences. The consequences of creating property rights in such objects are far reaching. A Philosophy of Intellectual Property argues that lying at the heart of intellectual property are duty-bearing privileges. We should adopt an instrumentalist approach to intellectual property and reject a proprietarian approach - an approach which emphasizes the connection between labour and property rights. The analysis draws on the history of intellectual property, legal materials, the work of Grotius, Pufendorf, Locke, Marx and Hegel, as well as economic, sociological and legal theory. The book is designed to be accessible to specialists in a number of fields as well as students. It will interest philosophers, political scientists, economists, legal scholars as well as those professionals concerned with policy issues raised by modern technologies and the information society.
List of contents
Contents: Introduction; Justifying Intellectual Property: Back to the Beginning; Locke, Labour and the Intellectual Commons; Hegel: The Spirit of Intellectual Property; Abstract Objects in Productive Life: Marx's Story; Property, Opportunity and Self-Interest; The Power of Abstract Objects; The Justice of Information; Intellectual Property: For Instrumentalism, Against Proprietarianism.
About the author
Peter Drahos
Summary
This book argues that intellectual property rights are duty-bearing privileges. Drawing on the work of, amongst others, Grotius, Locke and Hegel, as well as the law of several countries, the book argues that the use of these privileges should be guided by an instrumentalism based on a principle of humanism.
Additional text
’Legal scholars, law students and intellectual property lawyers will find this provocative book to be of great interest.’ Bimonthly Review of Law Books ’...this publication has much to offer students, scholars and practitioners of law, philosophy, economics and sociology in reading a broader understanding of the dimensions of intellectual property...a work of great insight...a unique and worthy contribution.’ Prometheus
Report
'Legal scholars, law students and intellectual property lawyers will find this provocative book to be of great interest.' Bimonthly Review of Law Books '...this publication has much to offer students, scholars and practitioners of law, philosophy, economics and sociology in reading a broader understanding of the dimensions of intellectual property...a work of great insight...a unique and worthy contribution.' Prometheus
