Description

This work, by Rufus Pollack Rufusw, defends the idea of the public domain as something with tangible social and economic benefits, benefits which need to be taken into account when considering intellectual property reforms.

The essay was written to address what Pollock calls a "form of monomania in which monopoly rights, in the form of intellectual property, displace all else from our thinking on the subject. [The current paradigm] binds us to a narrow, and erroneous, viewpoint in which innovation is central but access is peripheral." But access is important, he argues, because open access can often produce broader social benefits than secrecy. And not just for consumers—businesses can profit, too.