Includes bibliographical references and index

Why intellectual property? Why now? / Mat Callahan and Jim Rogers -- Running through the jungle : my introduction to intellectual property / Mat Callahan -- Intellectual property rights and their diffusion around the world : towards a global history / Colin Darch -- Political economy of intellectual property / Michael Perelman -- I am because I own vs. I am because we are / Mat Callahan -- Owning up to owning traditional knowledge of medicinal plants / Josef A. Brinckmann -- Using human rights to move beyond reformism to radicalism : A2K [access to knowledge] for schools, libraries and archives / Caroline B. Ncube -- Meet the new boss, same as the old boss : copyright and continuity in the contemporary music economy / Jim Rogers -- Free software and open source movements from digital rebellion to Aaron Swartz : responses to government and corporate attempts at suppression and enclosure / Paul McKimmy ; with a coda by Bob Jolliffe -- Rethinking the World Intellectual Property Organization / Debra J. Halbert -- What is intellectual property? / Blayne Haggart -- Piracy, states and the legitimation of authority / Mat Callahan

"This book examines the wider implications of the concept of intellectual property (IP) and questions how IP law has been used to safeguard and assert the ownership of ideas and creativity. Today, with mounting challenges from the growth of free software and open source movements, this collection provides an accessible and alternative guide to IP, exploring its significance within the wider struggle between capital and the commons"--Publisher's website