Hughes (1988): The Philosophy of Intellectual Property

Comments

Justin Hughes (1988). The philosophy of intellectual Property. The Georgetown Law Review, 77(287), 287-366.

Outlines of the Paper

As a slogan, "property' does not have the siren's call of words like "freedom," "equity," or "rights." The Declaration of Independence speaks boldly of liberty, but only obliquely of property--through the imagery of the "pursuit of Happiness." (Hughes, 1988, p. 288)

[oblique: neither perpendicular nor parallel to a given line or surface; slanting; sloping.]

More familiar civil rights doctrines, specifically rights of expression and privacy, also can provide a foundation fro personality theory in intellectual property. This civil rights justification serves, in large part, as a bridge from American legal doctrines to the more abstract personality justification.
(Hughes, 1988, p. 289)
Hughes (1988) show that the existing law supports, to varying degrees, the credibility of different theories of property and that these theories suppport, to varying degrees, the validity of existing laws.
(Hughes, 1988, p. 289)

I. What counts as Intellectual Property?

In many quarters, property is viewed as an inherently conservative concept--a social device for the maintenance of the status quo.