In the opening chapter, of this volume the editors invite the reader
to imagine that he or she has a blank slate when it comes to drawing
up a new copyright law. One supposes that there would be a lot of
interesting proposals, especially from the non-lawyers whose minds
would be less trammelled by copyright’s technicality. Some readers
might keep the slate blank. The freedom of a blue sky should allow
one to conclude that commodification by copyright should play no
role in a social system. Anarchists, as well as those libertarians who
do not extend natural property rights to intangible objects, might
arrive at such a conclusion from first principles. Alternatively, one
might conclude on consequential grounds, as Machlup did about
the patent system, that if one did not have a copyright law it would
be irresponsible to implement one.
None of the contributors to this volume argue for the abolition of
copyright. Instead, they suggest feasible changes to copyright systems
based on the assumption of a world in which copyright design issues
are not settled by a global political economy dominated by the variable
of power. The upshot is a set of stimulating and highly readable essays
that reflect upon the rules, principles, doctrines and interpretations
that would help to draw copyright law into the service of civitas
rather than the imperium of factions or nations.