Formally, ownership of ideas is legally impossible, and can never be globally secured. Yet, in very real and significant ways these limits have been undone. In principle, ideas cannot be owned, yet, undoing the distinction between ideas and tangible manifestations, the distinction which underpins the principle, allows the principle to hold even whilst its meaning is hollowed out. Post-Cold War global network capitalism is premised upon regulatory structures designed to enforce deregulation in global markets and production, but at the same time to enforce global regulation of property and intellectual property in particular. However, this roll-out has not been without resistance and limitations. Globalization, the affordances of digital networks, and contradiction within capitalism itself - between private property and free markets - promote and undo global IP expansion. In this book David and Halbert map the rise of global IP protectionism, debunk the key justifications given for IPRs, dismiss the arguments put forward for global extension and harmonization; and suggest that roll-back, suspension, and even simply the bi-passing of IP in practice offer better solutions for promoting innovation and meeting human needs.
Over the past decade, the scope of copyright and patent law has grown significantly, strengthening property rights, even when such rights seem to infringe upon other, more basic, priorities. This book investigates the ways in which activists, scholars, and communities are resisting the expansion of copyright and patent law in the information age. Debora J. Halbert explores how an alternative framework for understanding intellectual property - including about how we ought to think about the issues, the development of social movements around specific issues, and civil disobedience - has developed. Each chapter in the book discusses how resistance is developing in relation to a particular copyright or patent issue such as: access to patented medication access to copyrighted information and music via the Internet the patenting of genetic material. This controversial book examines the ways in which the idea of intellectual property is being re-thought by the victims of an over-expansive legal system. It will appeal to students and researchers from a range of disciplines, from law and political science to computer science, with an interest in intellectual property.
This book seeks to make an intervention into the ongoing debate about the scope and intensity of global copyright laws. While mapping out the primary actors in the context of globalization and the modern political economy of information ownership, the argument is made that alternatives to further expansion of copyright are necessary. By examining the multiple and competing interests in creating the legal regime of copyright law, this books attempts to map the political economy of copyright in the information age, critique the concentration of ownership that is intrinsic in the status quo, and provide an assessment of the state of the contemporary global copyright landscape and its futures. It draws upon the current narratives of copyright as produced by corporate, government, and political actors and frames these narratives as language games within a global political project to define how information and culture will be shared and exchanged in the future. The text problematizes the relationship of the state to culture, comments on the global flows of culture, and critiques the regulatory apparatus that is in place to commodify culture and align it with the contemporary nation-state. In the end, the possibility of non-commodified and more open futures are explored. The State of Copyright will be of particular interest for students and scholars of international political economy, law, political science, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, library sciences, and communication studies. It also will appeal to a growing popular audience that has taken an interest in the issues of copyright.
Over the past decade, the scope of copyright and patent law has grown significantly, strengthening property rights, even when such rights seem to infringe upon other, more basic, priorities. This book investigates the ways in which activists, scholars, and communities are resisting the expansion of copyright and patent law in the information age. Debora J. Halbert explores how an alternative framework for understanding intellectual property - including about how we ought to think about the issues, the development of social movements around specific issues, and civil disobedience - has developed. Each chapter in the book discusses how resistance is developing in relation to a particular copyright or patent issue such as: access to patented medication access to copyrighted information and music via the Internet the patenting of genetic material. This controversial book examines the ways in which the idea of intellectual property is being re-thought by the victims of an over-expansive legal system. It will appeal to students and researchers from a range of disciplines, from law and political science to computer science, with an interest in intellectual property.
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