The Global Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights The New Enclosures?

This book considers the contemporary disputes about the ownership of knowledge resources, discussing issues such as genetically modified foods, the music industry and the internet. Also examined is the problematic TRIPs agreement.

It has become a commonplace that there has been an information revolution, transforming both society and the economy. In 1995 the Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPs) agreement aimed to harmonise protection for property in knowledge throughout the global system.This book considers the contemporary disputes about the ownership of knowledge resources - as in the cases of genetically modified foods, the music industry or the internet - and the problematic nature of the TRIPs agreement. In this highly topical book, Christopher May reveals that, because of such problems, at present the balance in intellectual property rights between public good and private reward is more often than not weighted towards the latter.

Introduction 1. On institutions and property 2. Developing intellectual property 3. TRIPs as watershed 4. Sites of resistance - patenting nature, technology and skills? 5. Sites of consolidation - legitimate authorship? 6. Between commons and individuals

Christopher May