A Critical Guide to Intellectual Property

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A Critical Guide to Intellectual Property

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Ours is an era when human genes can be copied and patented. From genetically modified foods to digital piracy, the concept of intellectual property (IP) and the laws upholding it play a foundational role in our society, but its political and ideological dimensions have rarely been understood outside of specialist circles.

This collection cuts through the legal jargon that so often surrounds IP, to provide both a comprehensive history and analysis that explores the corporate interests that shape its conception and the movements that are developing alternatives.

As the nature of industry changes, we might ask: what are the wider implications of the concept of IP, be it for agribusiness and pharmaceutical companies or the film and music industries? Has IP law has been used to safeguard and assert the ownership of ideas and creativity, or is it an essential foundation of our culture?

Today, with mounting challenges from the growth of free software and open source movements, this collection provides an accessible and alternative guide to IP, exploring its significance within the wider struggle between capital and the commons.

1. Why Intellectual Property? Why Now? - Mat Callahan and Jim Rogers

2. Running Through the Jungle: My Introduction to Intellectual Property - Mat Callahan

Part I: Historical Context and Conceptual Frameworks

3. Intellectual Property Rights and their Diffusion around the World: Towards a Global History - Colin Darch

4. The Political Economy of Intellectual Property - Michael Perelman

5. I Am Because I Own vs. I Am Because We Are - Mat Callahan

Part II: Terrains of Conflict and Terms of Engagement

6. Owning up to Owning Traditional Knowledge of Medicinal Plants - Josef A. Brinckmann

7. Using Human Rights to Move Beyond Reformism to Radicalism: A2K for Schools, Libraries and Archives - Caroline B. Ncube

8. Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss: Copyright and Continuity in the Contemporary Music Economy - Jim Rogers

9. Free Software and Open Source Movements from Digital Rebellion to Aaron Swartz: Responses to Government and Corporate Attempts at Suppression and Enclosure - Paul McKimmy (with a coda by Bob Jolliffe)

Part III: Law, Policy and Jurisdiction

10. Rethinking the World Intellectual Property Organization - Deborah J. Halbert

11. What is Intellectual Property? - Blayne Haggart

12. Piracy, States and the Legitimation of Authority - Mat Callahan

13. Summary and Concluding Remarks - Mat Callahan and Jim Rogers