A Philosophy of Intellectual Property (Applied Legal Philosophy)

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. Creative Labour -- The Tasks of Intellectual Property -- Conclusion -- 6 Property, Opportunity and Self-interest -- Introduction -- The Rationality of Perfect Competition -- Four Functions of Property -- The Appropriation Function -- The Adjustive Function -- The Self-defence Function -- The Planning Function -- The Property in Pay-offs -- Preventive Strategies -- Intellectual Property Factions -- Conclusion -- 7 The Power of Abstract Objects -- Introduction -- Property and Private Sovereignty -- Abstract Objects -- The Power of Abstract Objects -- Conclusion -- 8 The Justice of Information Locke on Intellectual Property -- Community and the Intellectual Commons -- The Intellectual Commons -- Four Types of Community -- Creativity and the Intellectual Commons -- Choosing Community and Common -- Conclusion -- 4 Hegel: The Spirit of Intellectual Property -- Introduction -- Hegel's Property -- The State, Civil Society and Intellectual Property -- Conclusion -- 5 Abstract Objects in Productive Life: Marx's Story -- Introduction -- Marx on Property: Three Orthodox Views and their Application -- Property as Alienation -- Class Control over Abstract Objects -- Ideology Theory Cover -- Half Title -- Dedication -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Series Preface -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- Some Distinctions -- Economic Theory -- Overview of the Chapters -- A Note on the Subject Areas of Intellectual Property -- 2 Justifying Intellectual Property: Back to the Beginning -- Why History? -- Classifying Intellectual Property: Rome Speaks -- Justifying Intellectual Property -- Copyright -- Patents -- Conclusion -- 3 Locke, Labour and the Intellectual Commons -- Locke's Purposes in 'Of Property' -- Interpreting Locke Informational Justice -- Information as a Primary Good -- Distributing Information -- Global Informational Justice -- Conclusion -- 9 Intellectual Property: For Instrumentalism, Against Proprietarianism -- The Proprietarian Creed -- Proprietarianism in Action -- Against Proprietarianism -- Towards Instrumentalism -- The Duties of Privilege -- Conclusion -- References -- Index Peter Drahos. Dartmouth Series In Applied Legal Philosophy--series Pref. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 229-250) And Index.