[p2p-research] CAD files at The PIrate Bay? (Follow up)

[Andy Robinson]

First point:  the switch from concentrated (MNC) to diffuse (garage)
distribution of manufacturing is affected by the whole field of intellectual
property (IP), not just patents.  While patents may indeed be unaffordable
for very small outfits, the same problems do not affect other forms of IP
such as copyright and trademarks.

Second point: there is little empirical evidence of a move away from IP in
fields most open to decentralised production.  Open-source software
specifically defends itself against IP by formal and deliberate means, but
the wider field of diffuse software production gets pulled back into IP
disputes constantly, with disputes over ideas still at the "garage" stage
(c.f. the lawsuit over who invented Facebook).  IP also seems not to be
disappearing from production of books, music, games, etc.

Third point: the move towards decentralisation is relative.  It is true that
from a *normative *point of view, the creation of a *non- or post-capitalist
* social system would most likely eliminate IP.  However, from an *empirical
* point of view, changes *within capitalism *towards decentralisation are
not leading to the elimination of big businesses but rather, to flattened
hierarchies and contracting-out.  Small businesses plugged into the world
economy usually produce goods trademarked, copyrighted and patented by large
corporations.  Large corporations see the need to continue and even tighten
these IP regimes because their relevance to the whole process is centrally
premised on the extraction of rent on IP - the IP regime prevents small
companies undercutting large companies in local markets.  Indeed, I would
maintain given recent studies showing equal productivity in factories in
North and South, that the central mechanism of core-periphery exploitation
has moved from technological inequality (high vs low value added) to rent
extraction on IP.  Since the loss of IP would make large companies
irrelevant, they fight tooth and nail to preserve it, even beyond strict
competitiveness, and behave in otherwise quite "irrational" ways to prevent
their own irrelevance (e.g. the MPAA and RIAA's alienating of customers).

Fourth point: IP is a form of rent-extraction carried out by or through
states, not strictly speaking a part of the process of capitalist markets.
The persistence of the practice can be undermined by refusal to take
advantage of legal privileges/rights which exist, but the laws will not
disappear due to market processes, only due to state decisions.  It is
possible that states will decide that IP is retarding competitiveness and
needs to go, but it seems unlikely given the latest trends towards more
draconian enforcement.  It may be more likely that states will expand IP
coverage to address new problems.  Hence, if small businesses are not
getting patents because of cost, states might reduce or eliminate the cost
of patents for small businesses.

Fifth point: it may be more productive to look at the continuing
applicability or enforceability of IP, rather than whether businesses will
continue to use it.  While this is very visible in the virtual and
informational sphere ("pirating" and free duplication of games, software,
console systems, music, film, TV, news, books, etc), it is also increasingly
the case in terms of technological hardware.  Growing Southern economies -
China being especially notorious - tend to have either limited IP regimes or
lax enforcement, meaning that everything that a MNC produces there, will
also be copied or counterfeited at the same quality for the local market,
and in some cases traded internationally.  I have my suspicions that
Southern regimes are very aware of the centrality of IP to core-periphery
exploitation and their laxity is quite deliberate.  But, in part it also
reflects the limits of the Southern state in terms of capacity to dominate
society, and the growing sophistication of transnational networks (e.g.
organised crime networks), which can evade, penetrate and fight the state
very effectively.

bw
Andy
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