Intellectual Property and Theories of Justice

Fourteen philosophers, economists and legal scholars address the question 'Can intellectual property rights be fair?' What differentiates intellectual from real property? Should libertarians or Rawlsians defend IP rights? What's wrong with free-riding? How can incentives be taken into account by theories of justice?

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors How (Un)fair is Intellectual Property?; A.Gosseries Lockean Justifications of Intellectual Property; D.Attas Are Rawlsians Entitled to Monopoly Rights?; S.Dumitru Access to vs. Exclusion from Knowledge: Intellectual Property, Efficiency and Social Justice; G.B.Ramello The Incentives Argument for Intellectual Property Protection; S.V.Shiffrin When Property is Something Else: Understanding Intellectual Property Through the Lens of Regulatory Justice; S.Ghosh Liberty and the Rejection of Strong Intellectual Property Rights; J.Trerise Is P2P Sharing of MP3 Files an Objectionable Form of Free-riding?; G.Demuijnck Copyright and Freedom of Expression: A Philosophical Map; A.Couto Free Software, Proprietary Software and Linguistic Justice; G.Falquet & F.Grin How Efficient is the Patent System? A General Appraisal and an Application to the Pharmaceutical Sector; P.Belleflamme Patents on Drugs – The Wrong Prescription?; P.Dietsch Is It Ethical To Patent Human Genes?; A.Lever Index

About the Author :
DANIEL ATTAS is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Director of the Integrative Program: Philosophy, Economics, Political Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel PAUL BELLEFLAMME is Professor of Economics at Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium ALEXANDRA COUTO is at Oxford University, UK GEERT DEMUIJNCK is Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy, Catholic University of Lille, France PETER DIETSCH is Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department, Université de Montréal, Canada SPERANTA DUMITRU is a Post-doc Research Fellow, CERSES (CNRS and Université Paris-Descartes, France GILLES FALQUET is Professor of Informatics, University of Geneva, Switzerland SHUBHA GHOSH is a Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, USA FRANÇOIS GRIN is Professor of Economics, University of Geneva and a Visiting Professor, University of Lugano, Switzerland ANNABELLE LEVER is a Fellow, Philosophy Department, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK GIOVANNI BATTISTA RAMELLO is Associate Professor of Industrial Economics, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Italy SEANA VALENTINE SHIFFRIN is Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, LA, USA JONATHAN TRERISE is a Lecturer, Florida International University, Miami, USA

Review :
' a much needed intervention into current debates over intellectual property and social justice the essays here question and probe deeply the oversimplified justification of modern intellectual-property law sophisticated and compelling, teaching much about the ways in which philosophy can illuminate and enrich economic analysis of law.' Madhavi Sunder, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 'This book of readings on intellectual property is unusual in three respects: the international cast of the contributors, the widening of the focus of analysis to include not only law and economics but also philosophy, and the decision to examine both theoretical questions and concrete practical questions. Most important is the high quality of the contributions. They not only are of high intellectual quality, but they are lucid and well written; and the introduction is a model of clarity.' - Richard A. Posner, US Court of Appeal, Seventh Circuit 'Dramatically strengthened and globalized, intellectual property rules are shaping the evolution of whole sectors of the world economy: technology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, publishing, and entertainment. The world's most powerful corporations and governments are therefore fighting intensely over the design of these rules. The present collection highlights the main moral issues raised by intellectual property rights. It discusses these issues at the level of principle, and also in a series of focused moral analysesof the most pressing innovation-access dilemmas and of various reform ideas. An excellent introduction to a complex, shifting, and very important moral terrain.' - Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs Yale University 'This collection of 12 essays provides a fascinating insight into the application of classical theories of justice to both fundamental issues in the field of intellectual property and contemporary, practical issues.' European Intellectual Property Review