Copyright and Intellectual Property are issues that have prompted a number of controversies recently. The Dark Horse vs Joyful Noise court case in which Katy Perry was found to have infringed on the intellectual property rights of Christian rap artists Flame, for instance, recently provoked a great deal of astonishment online (and inspired a fantastic video by musicologist Adam Neely on the flaw in copyright law as it currently applies to music). Beyond this, the "fair use" or "fair dealing" doctrines which essentially allow for legal copyright infringement for the purposes of parody, commentary and critique regularly draw the frustrations of YouTube creators hit with a copyright claim (see, for instance, Nintendo's copyright policy which, until it was recently changed, was seen as somewhat draconian).

In today's video, then, I wanted to ask whether we should abolish copyright and intellectual property altogether?

I begin by giving a bit of a copyright and intellectual property crash course before continuing to look more broadly at forms of property ownership such as the distinction between personal property vs private property, all to inform a slightly more in-depth discussion of the inconsistencies in the law surrounding forms of intellectual property.

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Further Reading

Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction by Siva Vaidhyanathan
US: https://amzn.to/2mWYp3G
UK: https://amzn.to/2nAOEsi

Theft! A History of Music by James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins
US: https://amzn.to/2mNBAiC
UK: https://amzn.to/2nJsWSQ

Capital: Volume One: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx
US: https://amzn.to/2phGlSB
UK: https://amzn.to/2piL06V

[The above are affiliate links. I receive a small kickback from anything you buy which, in turn, helps to support the channel.]

Thanks for watching!

Twitter: @Tom_Nicholas
Website: www.tomnicholas.com