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From the Wright Brothers to Microsoft: Issues in the Moral Grounding of Intellectual Property Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

David Lea
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Abstract:

This paper considers the arguments that could support the proposition that intellectual property rights as applied to software have a moral basis. Undeniably, ownership rights were first applied to chattels and land and so we begin by considering the moral basis of these rights. We then consider if these arguments make moral sense when they are extended to intellectual phenomenon. We identified two principal moral defenses: one based on utilitarian concerns relating to human welfare, the other appeals to issues of individual autonomy and private control. We conclude that intellectual property rights could not be defended from a moral perspective that emphasizes autonomy and individual control because copyright and patent restrict fundamental freedoms to transfer and redistribute one’s property. We also find it difficult to defend intellectual property in software from a utilitarian perspective because of the current structure of the market. We mention two characteristics of the software market that make it distinct and promote monopolistic conditions and excessive profit taking: the facility of replication, and the need for compatibility in operating systems. We conclude that there are good reasons to reverse the current market’s structure. We suggest three possible remedies. The government could rigorously enforce antitrust legislation, impose greater monitoring and price controls, or obviate the commercial aspect altogether by denying the application of intellectual property rights to software.

Type
Articles
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 579 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2006

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References

Notes

1. Peter L. Jakab and Tom D. Crouch, Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention (Washington: Smithsonian History of Aviation Series, 1990).

2. R. M. Stallman, “GNU Manifesto,” in Computers, Ethics and Society, ed. M. D. Ermann and M. S. Shauf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 153–61.

3. D. G. Johnson, Computer Ethics, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001), 143.

4. Stallman, “GNU Manifesto,” 159.

5. J. Ladd, “Ethics and the Computer World,” in Cyberethics Social and Moral Issues in the Computer Age (New York: Prometheus Books, 2000), 44–55, at 52.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. David Pogue, Macworld 14(10) (Oct 1997): 190–91, at 191.

9. Scott Berg, Goldwyn (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1989).

10. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. P. Lazlett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1967).

11. Ian Maitland, “Priceless Goods: How Should Life-Saving Drugs Be Priced?” Business Ethics Quarterly 12(4) (2002): 451–80, at 464.

12. H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961).

13. Ibid., 188.

14. Ibid., 191, 192.

15. John Christman, The Myth of Property (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 131.

16. Ibid., 143.

17. David Gauthier, Morals by Agreement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).

18. Ibid., 31.

19. John Christman, “Distributive Justice and the Complex Structure of Ownership,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 23(3) (Summer 1994): 225–50, at 249.

20. Ibid.

21. R. Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1974).

22. See also Richard Stallman, “Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation,” New York University, New York, May 29, 2001. http://www.mirror5.com/events/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt.

23. Ibid., 12.

24. Ian Maitland, “Priceless Goods.”

25. Ibid., 464.

26. Ibid., 466.

27. Bob Cringely, The Triumph of the Nerds: Impressing their Friends, vol. 1, Ambrose Videos, 1996, recounts the activities of the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley, which witnessed the first demonstration of the personal computer.

28. Ibid.

29. Stallman, “Free Software.”

30. Ibid., 463.

31. A. Branscomb, Who Owns Information: From Privacy to Public Access (New York: Basic Books, 1994), 138.

32. Businessweek Online (July 26, 1999), http://www.businessweek.com:/1999/99.

33. The Gulf Today (November 17, 2004): 23.

34. Peter Singer, One World: the Ethics of Globalization (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002), 175.

35. As advocated by people such as Stallman, “Free Software.”

36. “US Judges Re-Activate Microsoft Antitrust Case,” ComputerWire, no. 4883 (March 22, 2004).

37. New York Times, late edition (November 24, 2003): A22.

38. Jaret Seiberg, “Rules Of The Road,” Daily Deal/The Deal (April 5, 2004).