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Consequentialist Considerations of Intellectual Property Rights in Software and other Digitally Distributable Media

Kai Kristian Kimppa, Consequentialist Considerations of Intellectual Property Rights in Software and other Digitally Distributable Media. In: Nancy Pouloudi Simon Rogerson Thomas Spyrou Terrell Ward Bynum (Ed.), Ethicomp 2004, Challenges for the Citizen of the Information Society, 2, 508-519, University of the Aegean, 2004.

Abstract:

This article answers consequentialist questions raised by various parties about the consequences of the implications of some recent liberalist and libertarian thoughts of intellectual property rights (IPR’s) in software and other digitally distributable media. It argues that most typical consequentialist arguments why IPR’s ought to be granted to software and other digitally distributable media are lacking in their power to prove the necessity of IPR’s. The aim of the article is to show that the proofs are either purely theoretical and can’t be tested in real world situations or ad hoc rationalizations and that the counter examples given – even though often just as theoretical – at least seem as plausible if not more so. When neither side can be verified, no IPR’s would seem more logical than IPR’s ‘just in case’.

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BibTeX entry:

@INPROCEEDINGS{inpKimppa04a,
  title = {Consequentialist Considerations of Intellectual Property Rights in Software and other Digitally Distributable Media},
  booktitle = {Ethicomp 2004, Challenges for the Citizen of the Information Society},
  author = {Kimppa, Kai Kristian},
  volume = {2},
  editor = {Terrell Ward Bynum, Nancy Pouloudi Simon Rogerson Thomas Spyrou},
  publisher = {University of the Aegean},
  pages = {508-519},
  year = {2004},
  keywords = {utility, utilitarianism, consequences, consequentialism, intellectual property, IPR, patent, copyright, free software, open source},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): Other

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