Intellectual Property Rights : : A Critical History / / ed. by Susan K. Sell, Christopher May.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Lynne Rienner Press Complete eBook-Package 2013-2000
• HerausgeberIn: May, Christopher,; Sell, Susan K.,
• Place / Publishing House: Boulder : : Lynne Rienner Publishers, , [2022]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: iPolitics: Global Challenges in the Information Age
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (253 p.)

With intellectual property widely acknowledged today as a key component of economic development, those accused of stealing knowledge and information are also charged with undermining industrial innovation, artistic creativity, and the availability of information itself. How valid are these claims? Has the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement ushered in a new, better era? Christopher May and Susan Sell trace the history of social conflict and political machinations surrounding the making of property out of knowledge. Ranging from ancient commerce in Greek poems to present-day controversies about online piracy and the availability of AIDS drugs in the poorest countries, May and Sell present intellectual property law as a continuing process in which particular conceptions of rights and duties are institutionalized; each settlement prompts new disputes, policy shifts, and new disputes again. They also examine the post-TRIPs era in the context of this process. Their account of two thousand years of technological advances, legal innovation, and philosophical arguments about the character of knowledge production suggests that the future of intellectual property law will be as contested as its past.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Why You Need to Know About Intellectual Property -- 2 Ideas and Technology -- 3 The Emergence of Intellectual Property Rights -- 4 Commerce vs. Romantic Notions of Authorship and Invention -- 5 The Nineteenth Century: Technological Development and International Law -- 6 The Twentieth Century: Intellectual Property Rights Consolidated -- 7 The Twenty-First Century: TRIPs and Beyond -- 8 Forgetting History Is Not an Option -- List of Acronyms -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Book