On some Paradoxes of Intellectual Property

Authors

  • Peppino Ortoleva Mediasfera

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS11200737

Keywords:

intellectual property, copyright, original, patent, reproduction, press

Abstract

Crucial to the economic and technological lives of communication industries, intellectual property rules are now doubly challenged. On the one hand, by a generalised tendency to extend their fields of application far beyond their original scope; on the other hand, by the difficulty or even the impossibility to adapt them to the present technical order. Among the many paradoxes of the intellectual property one of the most striking lies in the fact that, even though designed to protect innovations and novelties the relevant laws were conceived of in the Renaissance years, and from then on have been constantly adapted by way of analogy, generating in this way privileges, special interests, further contradictions ever more difficult to reconcile. Intellectual property is one of the most significant political problems of modern information economy: it is highly dangerous to go on by way of analogies and adaptations, on the other hand one should not dream of a technically perfect solution. It is time to open a large public and international debate, that is able to make transparent the underlying struggle between different legitimate interests, and to allow the expression of all stakeholders. Propriedade Intelectual: alguns paradoxos Cruciais para a vida económica e tecnológica das indústrias da comunicação, as regras de propriedade intelectual enfrentam em duplo desafio. Por um lado, devido a uma tendência generalizada para a sua aplicação a campos para os quais não foram definidos originalmente. Por outro lado, devido à dificuldade ou mesmo impossibilidade da sua adaptação à ordem técnica actual. Entre os muitos paradoxos que se colocam presentemente à propriedade intelectual, um dos mais significativos paradoxos reside no facto das leis principais terem sido definidas para proteger inovações e novidades durante o período da Renascença, e desde então conhecendo adaptações numa lógica de analogia, gerando consecutivamente um conjunto de privilégios, grupos de pressão e de interesse, e inúmeras outras contradições de conciliação cada vez mais difícil. A propriedade intelectual é um dos problemas mais significativos da moderna economia da informação: se por um lado, constitui um perigo continuar em processos de analogias e adaptações, por outro lado não se deve sonhar com uma solução técnica perfeita. Neste sentido, é chegado o momento de abrir um amplo debate público ao nível internacional que possibilite tornar transparente a luta de interesses legítimos subjacentes e dar expressão a todos os participantes.

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Published

2007-05-07

How to Cite

Ortoleva, P. (2007). On some Paradoxes of Intellectual Property. Observatorio (OBS*), 1(1). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS11200737

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

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