Personality-Based, Rule-Utilitarian, and Lockean Justifications of Intellectual Property

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.