Steal This Idea; Intellectual Property Rights and the Corporate Confiscation of Creativity

by Michael Perelman

• ISBN13: 9780312294083
• ISBN10: 0312294085
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2002-04-20
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book describes how corporate powers have erected a rapacious system of intellectual property rights to confiscate the benefits of creativity in science and culture. This legal system threatens to derail both economic and scientific progress, while disrupting society and threatening personal freedom. Perelman argues that the natural outcome of this system is a world of excessive litigation, intrusive violations of privacy, the destruction system of higher education, interference with scientific research, and a lopsided distribution of income.

Author Biography

Michael Perelman is the author of Class Warfare in the Information Age and Transcending the Economy. He is Professor of Economics at California State University at Chico.

Table of Contents

Introduction How Intellectual Property Rights Enrich the Few While Undermining Liberty, Science, and Society	1	(12)
The Ascension of Intellectual Property Rights	13	(32)
The Perversions of Intellectual Property	45	(30)
Intellectual Property vs. Science	75	(40)
Corporate Science and Intellectual Property	115	(48)
Economics versus the New Economy	163	(30)
The Costs of Intellectual Property	193	(16)
Concluding Thoughts	209	(4)
Notes	213	(22)
References	235	(18)
Index	253