The Ontology of Cyberspace: Philosophy, Law, and the Future of Intellectual Property

157 Pages·2003·5.662 MB·English

by  David R. Koepsell

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F'HU.O’iOPHY/LAW/COMPinERS Sì9.95
Popular thinking is filled with miscon­ 'mach: . , sui j = d to pafent h w.
ceptions about cyberspace, mistakenly i Vafes:. : oeps d Jispels confesión in
envisioned as a strange, 'virtual' realm legal thinking otví ¡■■■■oses m . o<
of intangible objects with bizarre prop­ changes m i he Iciw ¡ I rw. ' actual p1 p-
erties defying common sense. In fact, erfy.
electrical charges take up space as atoms
take up space. Bits and bytes, like Onte c' ‘ prut iti
i
printed letters, exist in ordinary space the se r y . ly arv ne
and are objects of ordinary experience. oeciah. fu- tur w/• a
Koepsell carefully defines and V ighly n cir ortu: u i le,
examines such entities as bits, bytes, a ■ '£•, thou f i ■ ■ i¡vr- id
algorithms, programs, software, net­ re u ndly >
works, the Internet, e-mail, Wide Area
L Hr' '
Information Servers, Usenet threads,
and Virtual Reality, making ■■ eir onto "This ’hr, /<■ th
logical status clear. the is . 'er Iy JS
While earlier philosophers have éey inv k>¡ ■ nur, :p,
failed to address the ontol'.; ;ical prob­ if any, of things h ■■ r • agu ü,
lems of cyberspace, the legal system is hut it is surely the r,
grappling with iis practical problems.
~-rHC ■U 1 h'tVil VS
Software has bewildered lawyers, who
■ : . hlsRA r:$
cannot decide whether it is an 'expres­
sion', covered by copyright law, or a
Philosophy professor, legal analyst, and science fiction
writer, David Koepsell lives in Amherst, New York, with his
wife, Joanne, and their basset hound, Buttercup. He has
tinkered with computers all his life, beginning with his first
TSR-80 when he was a child, typing in Basic 'Pong' pro­
grams from Compute magazine, and now owns one of
the leading collections of antique computers.
A
ISBN 0-8120-1537-2
OPEN COURT
Chicago and La Salie, Illinois
Cover design by Randy Martinaitis
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Distributed by Publishers Group Wes*
ISBN: 0-8126-9S37V (P. p.
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The
Ontology of
Cyberspace

The
Ontology o f
Cyberspace
Philosophy,Lawf and the Future of
Intellectual Property
DAVID R. KOEPSELL
OPEN COURT
Chicago and La Salle, Illinois
To order books from Open Court, call toll free 1-800-815-2280 or visit our
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Open Court Publishing Company is a division of Carus Publishing Company.
Copyright © 2000 by Carus Publishing Company
First paperback printing 2003
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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publisher, Open Court Publishing Company, a division of Carus Publishing Company,
315 Fifth Sueet, P.O. Box 300, Peru, Illinois 61354-0300.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ICoepsell, David R. (David Richard)
The ontology of cyberspace : philosophy, law, and intellectual property' /
David R. ICoepsell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8126-9423-6 (cloth: alk. paper) —ISBN 0-8126-9537-2 (pbk: alk. paper)
1. Intellectual property—Methodology—Philosophy. 2. Industrial property'—
Methodology—Philosophy. 3. Copyright and electronic data processing—
Philosophy. 4. Cyberspace—Philosophy. 5. Ontology. I. Title.
IC1401.IC64 2000
346.04’82—dc21 00-055769
To Joanne

Brief Contents
Detailed Contents ix
Acknowledgments xv
1 Preliminary Questions 1
2 Ontology: Its Correct Object and Method 19
3 Some Methodologies of Legal Ontology 33
4 The Legal Ontology of Intellectual Property 43
5 The Legal Ontology of Software 59
6 The Commonsense Categories of Cyberspace 77
7 Artifice and Expression 85
8 A New Ontology of Cyberspace 97
9 Implications of the New Ontology of Cyberspace 113
References 131
Index 135