Table Of ContentResisting Intellectual Property
Over the past decade, the scope of copyright and patent law has grown
significantly, strengthening property rights, even when such rights seem to
infringe upon other more basic priorities. This book investigates the ways in
which activists, scholars, and communities are resisting the expansion of
copyright and patent law in the information age.
Debora J. Halbert explores how an alternative framework for under-
standing intellectual property is being developed. This alternative, emerging
through the work of legal scholars, social movements, the use of civil
disobedience, and a struggle to control the public perception of intellectual
property law, is a different analysis regarding how we ought to think about
intellectual property. Each chapter in the book discusses how resistance is
developing in relation to a particular copyright or patent issue such as:
• Access to patented medication.
• Access to copyrighted information and music via the internet.
• The patenting of genetic material.
This controversial book examines the ways in which the idea of intellectual
property is being re-thought by the victims of an over-expansive legal
system. It will appeal to students and researchers from a range of disci-
plines, from law and political science to computer science, with an interest in
intellectual property.
Debora J. Halbert is Associate Professor of Political Science at Otterbein
College, USA. She is also the author of Intellectual Property in the
Information Age: The Politics of Expanding Property Rights.
RIPE series in global political economy
Series editors:
Louise Amoore University of Newcastle, UK
Randall Germain Carleton University, Canada
Rorden Wilkinson University of Manchester, UK
and Wellesley College, USA
Formerly edited by Otto Holman (University ofAmsterdam),
Marianne Marchand (Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, Mexico),
Henk Overbeek (Free University, Amsterdam) and Marianne
Franklin (University ofAmsterdam)
The RIPE series editorial board are:
Mathias Albert Bielefeld University, Germany
Mark Beeson University of Queensland, Australia
A. Claire Cutler University of Victoria, Canada
Marianne Franklin University ofAmsterdam, the Netherlands
Stephen Gill York University, Canada
Jeffrey Hart Indiana University, USA
Eric Helleiner Trent University, Canada
Otto Holman University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Marianne H. Marchand Universidad de las Américas-Puebla, Mexico
Craig N. Murphy Wellesley College, USA
Robert O’Brien McMaster University, Canada
Henk Overbeek Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands
Anthony Payne University of Sheffield, UK
V. Spike Peterson University of Arizona, USA
This series, published in association with the Review of International Political
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economy. The series aims to cover all the central topics in IPE and to present
innovative analyses of emerging topics. The titles in the series seek to transcend
a. state-centred discourse and focus on three broad themes:
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. the nature of the forces driving globalisation forward
resistance to globalisation
thetransformation of the world order.
The series comprises two strands:
The RIPE Series in Global Political Economy aims to address the needs of
students and teachers, and the titles will be published in hardback and paper-
back. Titles include:
Transnational Classes and A Critical Rewriting ofGlobal
International Relations Political Economy
Integrating Reproductive, Productive
Kees van der Pijl
and Virtual Economies
V. Spike Peterson
Gender and Global Restructuring:
Sightings, Sites and Resistances
Contesting Globalization
Edited by Marianne H Marchand and
Space and Place in the World
Anne Sisson Runyan
Economy
André C. Drainville
Global Political Economy
Contemporary Theories
Global Institutions and
Edited by Ronen Palan Development
Framing the World?
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Edited by Ronen Palan Desmond McNeill
Ideologies ofGlobalization
Contending Visions ofa New World Order Global Institutions, Marginalization,
Mark Rupert and Development
Craig N. Murphy
The Clash within Civilisations
Critical Theories, International
Coming to Terms with Cultural Conflicts
Relations and ‘the Anti-Globalisation
Dieter Senghaas
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Labour in the Global Political Economy
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Regulation for the Rest ofUs
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Critical Reflections on Power, Morals Rowe
and Civilizations
Robert Cox with Michael Schechter
Routledge/RIPE Studies in Global Political Economy is a forum for innovative
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1Globalization and Governance* 3The Global Political Economy of
Edited by Aseem Prakash and Intellectual Property Rights
Jeffrey A. Hart The New Enclosures?
Christopher May
2Nation-States and Money
The Past, Present and Future of 4Integrating Central Europe
National Currencies EU expansion and Poland, Hungary
Edited by Emily Gilbert and Eric and the Czech Republic
Helleiner Otto Holman
5Capitalist Restructuring, 12Rediscovering International
Globalisation and the Third Way Relations Theory
Lessons from the Swedish Model Matthew Davies and Michael Niemann
J. Magnus Ryner
13International Trade and Developing
6Transnational Capitalism and the Countries
Struggle over European Integration Bargaining Coalitions in the GATT &
Bastiaan van Apeldoorn
WTO
Amrita Narlikar
7World Financial Orders
An Historical International Political
Economy 14The Southern Cone Model
Paul Langley The Political Economy of Regional
Capitalist Development in Latin
8The Changing Politics ofFinance in America
Korea and Thailand Nicola Phillips
From Deregulation to Debacle
Xiaoke Zhang
15The Idea ofGlobal Civil Society
Politics and Ethics ofa Globalizing Era
9Anti-Immigrantism in Western
Edited by Randall D. Germain and
Democracies
Statecraft, Desire and the Politics of Michael Kenny
Exclusion
Roxanne Lynn Doty 16Governing Financial Globalization
International Political Economy and
10The Political Economy ofEuropean Multi-Level Governance
Employment
Edited by Andrew Baker, David Hudson
European Integration and the
and Richard Woodward
Transnationalization of the
(Un)Employment Question
17Resisting Intellectual Property
Edited by Henk Overbeek
Debora J. Halbert
11Rethinking Global Political Economy
Emerging Issues, Unfolding Odysseys
Edited by Mary Ann Tétreault, Robert
A. Denemark, Kenneth P. Thomas and
Kurt Burch
Resisting Intellectual
Property
Debora J. Halbert
First published 2005
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group
© 2005 Debora J. Halbert
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0–415–70127–9
To Emily, Sam, Elizabeth, Tess, and Sabrina
Contents
Series preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 Theorizing the public domain: copyright and the development
of a cultural commons 13
2 Licensing and the politics of ownership: end user licensing
agreements versus open source 43
3 I want my MP3s: the changing face of music in an
electronic age 66
4 Moralized discourses: South Africa’s intellectual property
fight for access to AIDS medication 87
5 Patenting the body: resisting the commodification of
the human 112
6 Traditional knowledge and intellectual property:
seeking alternatives 135
7 Conclusion 164
Notes 169
Selected bibliography 214
Index 229
