Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age by Thierer Adam, Adam Thierer (Editor), Wayne Crews (Editor)

From the Publisher

A debate on the theory of intellectual property, the

Foreign Affairs

Last year, in a South African courtroom, global pharmaceutical firms challenged a law that permitted the manufacture and importation of generic aids drugs. The companies quickly dropped this claim, however, when the defense of their patent rights became a public relations fiasco. Indeed, just prior to last year's World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar, South Africa's health minister called the high prices for lifesaving medicines a "crime against humanity." Ten thousand miles away in San Francisco, the music industry tried to take down Napster, a service that allowed users to swap digital music files over the Internet. In this case, the courts agreed that Napster's file-sharing technology violated music copyrights. And across the Atlantic, advocates of "software libre" are introducing legislation in several European parliaments to give preferences in government procurement to software that can be freely copied and distributed. The Eurolinux Alliance argues that only free software "preserves privacy, individual liberties, and the right for every citizen to access public information."

Battles such as these are erupting all over the globe. At stake are decisions about how society can best encourage the creation of ideas, when someone can stake a claim to intellectual property, and how far copyright- and patent-holders can go in preventing others from taking their property. The scope of the controversy is vast. It might encompass debates about ownership of the formula for an aids vaccine, a Miles Davis riff, a software algorithm, or a new way of uncorking a wine bottle. Each of these is an idea embodied in physical forms: formulas, notes, code, or drawings are turned into capsules,records, CD-ROMs, or corkscrews. The economic consequences of the dispute are also immense. The resolution of who gets to own what, where, and for how long will determine how much corporations and entrepreneurs invest in creating intellectual property, where they will sell products based on intellectual property protection, and how much they will be able to charge for these products.

Library Journal

This collection of essays "springs" from the Fifth Annual Cato/Forbes ASAP Technology and Society conference, "The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age," and is split into two parts: Theory (comprising four essays) and Current Disputes in Intellectual Property Law (consisting of 14 essays). Contributors include John Perry Barlow, Tom W. Bell, Jim DeLong, Mitch Glazier, Jessica Litman, and Peter Wayner. The work contains varying perspectives and is quite current. There are several articles on Napster and the implications of Peer-to-Peer technology. However, while claiming to deal with intellectual property as a whole, there is not one article about trademarks, and the articles about patents mostly concern themselves with business methods. With copious notes and familiar faces, this collection has promise, but these arguments have been presented before and nothing significantly new has been added. Recommended only for intellectual property library collections and completists.-Rob Martindale, Dallas P.L.

Booknews

The very public lawsuits related to Napster and other file-sharing programs highlighted the controversy over intellectual property rights in the Internet era. Thierer and Crews (both of the Cato Institute) present 18 arguments from across the debate's spectrum. From the cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's amusing and biting attack on the large corporate controllers of culture to the attempt by a couple of lawyers to defend patents that grant monopoly rights to methods of doing business over the Internet, the contributors touch upon issues of intellectual property theory, copyright law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, digital rights management, and business method patents. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents