Digital Rights Network

Here's a list of texts people could read, to learn a bit about intellectual property and its relation with other subject areas. Most of the material here is from a set of critical but moderate progressive authors.

This list is inevitably incomplete and covers some areas better that others. It also focuses on material avaialble online. It will be extended and updated over time as we receive feedback. An introductory section providing a core reading list is provided at the beginning.

Introductory Readings

Collected here are a few readings (in order of brevity) to provide an initial overview:

1. Basic background and theory: the wikipedia entry on IP and entry on public goods
2. Free Software Foundation. How software patents impact on Free Software: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/fighting-software-patents.html
3. Creative Commons: read about section or watch the videos here: http://creativecommons.org/learnmore
4. Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig. Available under Creative Commons License in multiple (online) versions from here: http://free-culture.org/remixes/

Impact: 'IP is all around'

• P2P networks (napster, kazaa etc):
  • wikipedia p2p article
  • General commentary: http://www.shirky.com/#p2p
• Culture:
  • Recent presentation (at UCL in london) by Lessig about Creative Commons. See: http://www.okfn.org/fcd/wiki/CreativeCommonsResources
  • Creative Commons: read about section or watch the videos here: http://creativecommons.org/learnmore
  • Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig. Available under Creative Commons License in multiple (online) versions from here: http://free-culture.org/remixes/
  • "Copyrights and Copywrongs" by Siva Vaidhyanathan. Various chapters and other writings available from: his home page.
• Drugs for diseases. See: CPTech Pages
• Software
  • Free Software Foundation. How software patents impact on Free Software: http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/fighting-software-patents.html
  • FFII-UK page on software patents
• Power, property ownership and distributional concerns.

Theory:

Key Ideas

• Public goods and the commons
• Rivalry and excludability of goods
• Transaction costs

Readings

• Basic background and theory: the wikipedia entry on IP and entry on public goods
• Chapter on alternative compensation systems from Fisher's book: text
• Boyle's: "Tensions between Free Software and Architectures of Control". Speech in MP3 format Transcript
• Copyright and The Perfect Curve, Julie Cohen
• Hugenholtz on IP vs human rights
• The Law and Economics of Reverse Engineering, Samuelson and Scotchmer. Online: http://www.dklevine.com/archive/scotchmer-reverse.pdf
• (Heavier): Against Intellectual Property, Boldrin and Levine. http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm (first 4 chapters)