1. Intellectual Property: History and Basics

2. Thomas Jefferson writes a letter
On property: “It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. By an universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property goes with it.”

3. Thomas Jefferson writes a letter
He continues: “Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property.”

4. Thomas Jefferson writes a letter
Finally: “Considering the exclusive right to invention as given not of natural right, but for the benefit of society, I know well the difficulty of drawing a line between the things which are worth to the public the embarrassment of an exclusive patent, and those which are not.”

5. The Jefferson Warning
Intellectual property rights are not the same as tangible property rights
There is no entitlement to intellectual property rights
Intellectual property rights should not be permanent
Intellectual property rights are monopolies over ideas
Designing intellectual property rights is difficult

6. Thomas Babington Macaulay
In order for books to be written, authors must be paid through either patronage or copyright
Patronage is rejected as a solution
Copyright is a legal monopoly
Monopolies create costs to society
They tax all citizens by the high price of goods and by the exclusion from a line of work. Adam Smith

7. The Economics of Property
Occupation vs. ownership
Renting vs. owning
Rivalrous property
One that cannot be owned by multiple parties simultaneously
What is not rivalrous?
Excludable
One where it is possible to keep people from acquiring the property
What is not excludable?
Why do these distinctions matter?

9. Counter Arguments
Experiences with tangible property (rivalrous and excludable) transferred to intellectual property
Natural rights: It is of me
I created it, I designed it, I thought it up, it was my hard work
But how long should it be yours?
Beyond death?

10. Interpreting Policy
Another issue for policy design is whether it can be consistently interpreted and enforced
How does society decide if you own “2 – 1 = 1”?
What if someone already determined “1 + 1 = 2”?
How much overlap is too much for copyright?
Clearly more than one word, note, brush stroke?
What do new technologies do to the boundaries assumed by the policy?
Consider the case of share, retweet

11. The Public Domain
Chapter 3

15. Enclosure Movement What is enclosure?
Moving common property to private property
Considered important for increasing productivity/efficiency of resource
Motivates longer-term planning
Motivates investment (of money/effort to increase productivity of the resource)

16. Arguments for Enclosure
Overuse
The “tragedy of the commons”
Without, people “get while the getting is good”
Enclosure movement is based on pessimism about ability to manage commonly-owned resources
Is this human nature?
If creations are free then there is no motivation for creators

17. Example of Modern Enclosure Discussion
Moore vs. Regents of Univ. of California
No private property rights to “sources”
Rights are to the organization identifying the …

18. Moore vs. Regents of California
Focus in Boyle’s book is on right of “sources”, which are much like the natural rights arguments not supported by the constitution
Facts are that
In 1976 Moore signed consent authorizing removal of his spleen (and provided samples)
1983: Moore refused to sign consent for continuing research
1984: Regents received patent over process of using cell line in production of lymphokines ($3B business over 6 year period)
Judges found that the defendants showed that the cell line was distinct from cells taken from Moore’s body

19. Legal is not the Same as Ethical
Evidence that UC researchers asked for follow-on samples after they realized the potential without informing the patient
Henrietta Lacks case
Died of cancer in 1951
Found that her cells could live and reproduce outside the body (HeLa cells)
They have spread to researchers all over the globe
About 20 tons have been created
Have helped with many important discoveries
Complete genome of HeLa cells published in 2013

20. Economic Assumptions
Economic (utilitarian) rationale rather than natural right
Need to motivate creators
People do not own their own DNA because there is no need for motivation to have DNA?
Markets are needed to efficiently allocate resources (for R&D and other creative acts)
Property is a prerequisite for markets

21. Differences in Property Types (1)
Intellectual goods are non-rival
Cannot be overused (except for some pop music)
But they are also viewed as non-excludable
Once someone has an idea it cannot be removed
It is hard to stop them from sharing it

22. Differences in Property Types (2)
Ideas are made up of other ideas
Limiting reuse will impede further creativity, developments, etc.
But isn’t this true for physical property too?