Economists: Abolish Copyright & Patents to Save the Economy

Please note that this post is from 2009. Evaluate with care and in light of later events.

Economists: Abolish Copyright & Patents to Save the Economy:

Two economists from Washington University have looked at current copyright and patent laws and concluded that they’re not good. The pair see current intellectual property laws as similar to “medieval trade monopolies” which were bad for the economy as a whole, and are calling for the system to be reformed.

An interesting perspective, and one in which I am currently exploring in a “thought-piece” paper for a class on law, technology and development. I expect to have more to say about this later.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Economists call for patent and copyright abolition (boingboing.net)
• Beyond Economic Analysis of Intellectual Property: The Need For Social and Cultural Theory (inpropriapersona.com)
• INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, one of the key factors of sustainable growth in the modern world (violeta.si)
• Study: free markets superior to patent monopolies (arstechnica.com)