News Release

July 11, 2002

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Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age
The "Legitimacy" of Intellectual Property

Amazon.com. Houghton Mifflin Publishers. Napster. What do these companies have in common? They've all been entangled in copyright and patent fights.

The Internet has often been labeled a disruptive technology, and nowhere has that been more clearly the case than in the field of intellectual property (IP) law. Although for decades debates have raged over IP policy in academic circles and law and economics journals, the rise of the Internet has catapulted IP issues to the public's attention like never before.

In a new book from the Cato Institute, Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age, edited by Wayne Crews and Adam Thierer, the pros and cons of IP in the 21st century are explored thoroughly.

With contributors including Grateful Dead lyricist and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Perry Barlow; law professor and IP expert David G. Post; and U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), Copy Fights asks whether there are better ways to encourage artistic creation and scientific discovery, why we protect intellectual property, and whether we have "property rights" for intangible creations in the same way that we have them for our land and homes. Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age presents a thought-provoking exploration of those questions.

Says Declan McCullagh of Wired News, "The Cato Institute has performed a terrific service for anyone interested in the future of technology. It has assembled a provocative, beguiling, and thoroughly engaging collection of essays on the law and policy of intellectual property."

Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age