Boundaries of Information Property

Deryck Beyleveld, BSc Hons (Rand), MA (Cantab) PhD (UEA) and FRSB, is a Professor of Law and Bioethics at Durham Law School (United Kingdom). Christine Godt is a Professor of International and European Economic Law and Hanse Law School Director at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany). Lucie Guibault, LLB, LLM (Université de Montréal) and PhD (University of Amsterdam), is Professor of Law in Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University (Canada). Geertrui Van Overwalle, LLB (University of Brussels), MA (University of Leuven), PhD (University of Leuven), is a Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Professor of Methodology of Legal Sciences at the University of Leuven (Belgium).

"This book is the result of a long-term comparative research project on intellectual property, with topics ranging from patents to copyright, examined across 16 jurisdictions. It does not aim at commenting on current policy issues. The country reports unearth the culturally, morally and historically imprinted thought patterns across Europe which underpin current discussions on the appropriation of information, and which do not change quickly. The research results question the common narratives of the distinctiveness of private and public law, of contracts and property, and of morality and the law. The point of departure is the public good character of information, with the focus being on public interests pursued when assigning information as property. The 14 selected cases, based on recent, and in some cases futuristic when the project began in 2001, scenarios, aim to identify how boundaries to information property emerge, the areas of law that are applied and the principles that are followed in order to balance the conflicting interests at stake. The issues discussed revolve around well-known interfaces such as IP and competition law, monetary interests versus personal interests in human genome data, individual freedoms-to-operate versus collective action models as found in basic research or 'creative commons'. The book shows how some national discussions appear similar on the surface, in terms of resorting to parallel principles, but subsequent domestic policy answers vary greatly. Even legislation which aims at harmonisation may result into more diversity. Inversely, we found legal institutions applied which install contrasting legal rules which however aim at exactly the same behavioural change."