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    The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property
    The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property
    The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property

    By David Carey

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    About this ebook

    The AIDs crisis in Africa has given the once-esoteric question of intellectual property rights critical and immediate significance. The issue of pharmaceutical patents is but one dimension of a broad and complicated area at the intersection of law, economics, and ethics. In this monograph, philosopher David Carey supplies an overview of the philosophical and legal foundation of intellectual property rights and argues that a Christian view of those rights is at once appreciative and critical. More specifically, while the Church1s social teaching upholds the importance of property rights‹including intellectual property rights‹it also places all such rights within the context of obligations toward the common good. In this thought-provoking assessment of the field, Carey pays due attention at once to both economic reality and the demands of justice and charity.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherActon Institute
    Release dateMay 19, 2012
    ISBN9781880595640
    The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property

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      Book preview

      The Social Mortgage of Intellectual Property - David Carey

      The Social Mortgage

      of Intellectual Property

      David H. Carey

      Christian Social Thought Series

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2012 by Acton Institute

      An imprint of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty

      Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

      CONTENTS

      Foreword

      I. Introduction

      II. A Legal and Ethical Foundation: The Relationship of Law and Ethics

      III. Property in Christian Social Thought

      IV. Legal Implications of Church Teaching

      V. Intellectual Property

      VI. In Defense of Intellectual Property

      VII. Legal Limitations of Intellectual Property Rights

      VIII. Intellectual Property, Catholic Social Teaching, and Access to Medicine

      Notes

      References

      About the Author

      FOREWORD

      The purpose of this monograph series is to apply the timeless principles of Christian social thought to contemporary economic issues. This kind of application—the bromides of some commentators notwithstanding—is rarely a simple procedure. It requires not only a more-than-superficial knowledge of the Church’s theological tradition on social questions, but it requires also technical expertise in the field to which the social teaching is applied and a deft analysis of how the two subjects relate.

      In this essay on intellectual property, David Carey has taken on an especially complicated task. One reason for this complexity is that Church documents have said little about intellectual property directly; instead, one must infer how the Church’s position on property more generally might apply to nonmaterial forms of ownership. Another reason is that one is not dealing with a relatively static field in law or economics about which there is broad consensus. Instead, intellectual property law is rapidly developing and differs significantly from place to place. Even among economists who share many presuppositions in common, opinions about the benefits of copyright and patent protections vary dramatically.

      Given this situation, Carey does not offer here a definitive policy proposal. His concern instead is to ensure that readers understand the philosophical and legal foundation of intellectual property rights (IPR) and to suggest that a Christian view of those rights is at once appreciative and critical. More specifically, while the Church’s social teaching upholds the importance of property rights—including intellectual property rights—it also places all such rights within the context of obligations toward the common good.

      Exploring the theoretical underpinnings of intellectual property does not preclude analysis of specific issues at the intersection of morality and law. Among the most urgent is the question of access to medicine among citizens of developing nations (in particular, the supply of pharmaceuticals to African victims of AIDs). Carey addresses the problem with characteristic thoughtfulness, paying attention at once to both economic reality and the demands of justice and charity.

      The careful reader of this volume will be rewarded with deeper insight into a topic of critical current importance; for some people in some places, it is literally a matter of life or death. The application of Christian social thought to intellectual property law is not easy, but it is necessary.

      Kevin Schmiesing

      Acton Institute

      * * * * *

      I

      Introduction

      What is the place of intellectual property rights (IPR) in Christian social thought? Our aim is to lay out a coherent account of intellectual property, with philosophical reflection serving as the mortar by which a rich array of principles can be set into a unified framework, both comprehensive and comprehensible. We propose to discuss IPR in seven stages:

      1. We begin by erecting a legal and ethical foundation.

      2. We discuss some general norms about property, drawing from the Catholic Church’s social doctrine as well as from the perennial philosophical tradition grounded in Aristotle and enriched by Aquinas.

      3. We examine some legal dimensions of these norms concerning property.

      4. We focus specifically on intellectual property.

      5. We consider some aspects of new technological developments that seem to render traditional norms for intellectual property obsolete; specifically, we shall defend the institution of intellectual property against several recent objections.

      6. We balance our defense of IPR with an argument for limiting these rights.

      7. Finally, we apply our analysis to the problem of access to crucial medicines by commenting on the Holy See’s letter to the World Trade Organization (WTO), On Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

      * * * * *

      II

      A Legal and Ethical Foundation: The Relationship of Law and Ethics

      For our purposes here, we take ethics to be the general study of norms for human action in pursuit of what is good. Following Saint Thomas Aquinas, we understand the domain of human action to be the same as the domain of human deliberation and choice. People behave in many ways, but much human behavior is thoughtless or even involuntary. Only the behavior that proceeds from deliberation and choice deserves to be called human action. Moreover, any human action so defined, however trivial, falls within the domain of ethics.

      The domain of law is thus a subdomain of ethics. Again, we follow Saint Thomas in defining a law as an ordinance of reason aimed at the common good and

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