A Critical Guide to Intellectual Property - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786991136 ISBN 13: 9781786991133

Verlag: Zed Books, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

A wide-ranging critique of the concept and practice of intellectual property.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jim Rogers is a Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer at the School of Communications, Dublin City University. His research focuses on the evolving form and nature of the media and cultural industries in the digital era.

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A Critical Guide To Intellectual Property

By Mat Callahan, Jim Rogers

Zed Books Ltd

Copyright © 2017 Mat Callahan and Jim Rogers
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78699-113-3

Contents

Acknowledgments, vii, 
List of abbreviations, viii, 
1 Why intellectual property? Why now? Mat Callahan and Jim Rogers, 1, 
2 Running through the jungle: my introduction to intellectual property Mat Callahan, 14, 
SECTION ONE: HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS, 31, 
3 Intellectual property rights and their diffusion around the world: towards a global history Colin Darch, 33, 
4 The political economy of intellectual property Michael Perelman, 56, 
5 I am because I own vs. I am because we are Mat Callahan, 70, 
SECTION TWO: TERRAINS OF CONFLICT AND TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT, 97, 
6 Owning up to owning traditional knowledge of medicinal plants Josef A. Brinckmann, 99, 
7 Using human rights to move beyond reformism to radicalism: A2K for schools, libraries and archives Caroline B. Ncube, 117, 
8 Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: copyright and continuity in the contemporary music economy Jim Rogers, 144, 
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), 166, 
SECTION THREE: LAW, POLICY AND JURISDICTION, 197, 
10 Rethinking the World Intellectual Property Organization Debora J. Halbert, 199, 
11 What is intellectual property? Blayne Haggart, 217, 
12 Piracy, states and the legitimation of authority Mat Callahan, 238, 
13 Summary and concluding remarks Mat Callahan and Jim Rogers, 257, 
About the editors and contributors, 267, 
Index, 269, 

CHAPTER 1

WHY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? WHY NOW?

Mat Callahan and Jim Rogers

Introduction

Considering the grave dangers facing humanity today, it might appear that intellectual property (IP), though loudly controversial, is at best a tempest in a teapot, at worst a diversionary tactic designed to focus attention away from more serious issues. Compared to environmental disaster, deepening social inequality, rampant state surveillance and war without end, dispute over copyright, patent and trademark seems trivial. Though, in recent years, media attention has increasingly focused on digital piracy, genetically modified foods, the patenting of the human genome, and other IP-related matters of obvious importance, IP remains an enigma. That capitalism is in a crisis of epic proportions is beyond doubt. What role IP plays in this crisis, however, is anything but clear.

It must first be acknowledged that a great deal of legal obfuscation has to be cut through even to begin exploring the matter. IP has been above all shrouded in a fog of mystification precisely to keep out the rabble and protect the authority of lawyers. Yet laws are made and laws can be unmade, the underlying principle is justice, and justice is determined through political struggle, which is never confined to a courtroom. Indeed, the legal aspects of IP, while certainly worthy of informed debate, are by no means the most important in figuring out IP's place in current affairs. Far more relevant are the forces deployed on battlefields throughout the world.

First among these forces are of course the major industries dependent on IP for their profits. The most important are the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries in terms of patent and trademark, the film, music and publishing industries in terms of copyright. Most of the attention paid to IP has, until recently, been a result of these industries' propaganda efforts. Only in the last two decades has such propaganda been met and superseded by opposition from two other, sometimes separate, sometimes overlapping, areas, that is, social movements and "piracy."

Regarding social movements, these have formed in two distinct sectors which are, nevertheless, inseparable due to their emergence in response to the legal and political regimes organized by IP law and international treaty. These movements, furthermore, are responsible for making IP a radically different matter than was the intention of the holders of most intellectual property and their propagandists. Instead of an unimpeded privatization of knowledge and genetic resources, IP is now a focus of struggle demanding the attention of anyone concerned with changing the world.

Social movements

In the Global South, farmers and indigenous peoples, along with some governments, are waging an ongoing battle against the biggest food and pharmaceutical corporations in the world. A primary focus is the protection of "traditional knowledge and genetic resources," including cereal grains such as potatoes, corn and rice. What were in many cases the results of thousands of years of human ingenuity are now patented and turned into the private property of corporations in the Global North. This applies equally to medicinal plants, many of which have already appeared as trademarked and patented drugs in pharmacies everywhere. Another focus is on educational materials whose exorbitant costs are solely attributable to the extortionate royalties extracted by large publishing houses in the United States or Europe. What students in Rio de Janeiro must pay for the privilege of reading a chapter from a book is often prohibitive and has led to widespread disobedience followed by the inevitable police crackdowns made in the name of fighting piracy. These movements have exposed the fact that countries which only recently threw off the yoke of imperialism have been effectively recolonized by means of IP regimes. Membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) depends on acceptance of treaties enshrining copyright, patent and trademark as they are applied in the United States or EU. In fact, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the UN, administers 26 treaties to which all members of the UN are bound. That these treaties are based on IP laws designed in the first place to protect the merchants, manufacturers and financiers of Europe and the United States as they conquered the world seems to have been overlooked by the independence movements that at least nominally freed most of Asia, Africa and Latin American in the wake of World War II. Only socialist Cuba abolished IP (and has recently re-instituted it) but this is nowhere seriously considered. Now, popular resistance has forced both the practical application of and the philosophical justifications for IP regimes back onto the agenda.

In the Global North, what is known as the open access movement has sprung up, involving a large number and broad spectrum of people. Software programmers, journalists, scientists, artists, academics and civil libertarians have rallied to resist attempts by government and business to surveil and privately appropriate all exchanges of information taking place anywhere. Here the battle is joined along the lines of free speech, access to knowledge, sharing as a principle in education and creativity and against the intrusions of either government or business in the free association of people. It's latest manifestations have been, as is well known, the leaking of government secrets and the violently repressive measures undertaken by the US and European governments against Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and many others. But the roots of this movement lie in the systematic effort to criminalize file-sharing which began in the San Francisco Bay Area where the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Zed Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1786991136
• ISBN 13: 9781786991133
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 292
• Herausgeber: Callahan Mat, Rogers Dr. Jim
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland