A Critical Guide to Intellectual Property

From genetically modified foods to digital piracy, the concept of intellectual property (IP) and the laws upholding it play a central economic role in our society today, 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 in order to provide a comprehensive history and close analysis that explore the corporate interests that have shaped how IP is conceived and managed.
 
Up-to-date and comprehensive, this book examines the wider implications of the concept of IP and questions how IP law has been used to safeguard and assert the ownership of ideas and creativity. 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?
2 Running through the jungle: my introduction to intellectual property
Section One: Historical Context and Conceptual Frameworks
3 Intellectual property rights and their diffusion around the world: towards a global history
4 The political economy of intellectual property
5 I am because I own vs. I am because we are
Section Two: Terrains of Conflict and Terms of Engagement
6 Owning up to owning traditional knowledge of medicinal plants
7 Using human rights to move beyond reformism to radicalism: A2K for schools, libraries and archives
8 Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: copyright and continuity in the contemporary music economy
9 Free software and open source movements from digital rebellion to Aaron Swartz: responses to government and corporate attempts at suppression and enclosure
Section Three: Law, Policy and Jurisdiction
10 Rethinking the World Intellectual Property Organization
11 What is intellectual property?
12 Piracy, states and the legitimation of authority
13 Summary and concluding remarks