Justifying Intellectual Property Protection: Why the Interests of Content Creators Usually Win Over Everyone Else's

Abstract

I argue that the law should provide limited protection of intellectual property interests. To this end, I argue that whether the law ought to coercively restrict liberty depends on an assessment of all competing interests. Further, I argue that the interests of content creators in controlling the disposition of the content they create outweigh the interests of other persons in using that content in most, but not all, cases. I conclude that, in these cases, morality protects the interests of content creators, but not the interests of other persons and hence would justify limited legal protection of the content creators’ interests.