Personality-Based, Rule-Utilitarian, and Lockean Justifications of Intellectual Property
INFORMATION AND COMPUTER ETHICS, p. 105, H. Tavani and K. Himma, eds., John Wiley & Sons, 2008
29 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2012
Date Written: 2008
Abstract
In this article, I will present and examine personality-based, rule-utilitarian, and Lockean justifications for intellectual property. Care is needed so that we do not confuse moral claims with legal ones. The brief sketch of Anglo-American and Continental systems of intellectual property below, focuses on legal conceptions and rights while the arguments that follow — personality based, utilitarian, and Lockean — are essentially moral. I will argue that there are justified moral claims to intellectual works — claims that are strong enough to warrant legal protection.
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