The first edition established itself as one of the leading books to situate the issue of intellectual property within the discipline of International Political Economy (IPE). Since its publication, intellectual property has continued to rise up the global agenda, reflecting expanding interest in the area among policy-makers and advocacy groups, linked to the increasingly fraught politics of the global governance of IPRs. Significantly revised and updated to take account of developments within the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization, this edition incorporate.

First edition published in 2000 by Routledge, New York, N.Y.

This book considers the contemporary disputes about the ownership of knowledge resources - as in the cases of genetically modified foods, the music industry or the Internet - and the problematic nature of the Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPs) agreement.

The first edition established itself as one of the leading books to situate the issue of intellectual property within the discipline of International Political Economy (IPE). Since its publication, intellectual property has continued to rise up the global agenda, reflecting expanding interest in the area among policy-makers and advocacy groups, linked to the increasingly fraught politics of the global governance of IPRs. Significantly revised and updated to take account of developments within the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization, this edition incorporates the author’s recent research on IPRs. It retains the theoretical and analytical elements of the first edition, whilst offering students and researchers a detailed analysis of how intellectual property is politically constructed, and how it is linked to the economics of knowledge and information in the contemporary global political economy. Rapidly-developing issues addressed in the work include: arguments around the implementation of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of IPRs (TRIPs) the WIPO Development agenda and the ‘resistance’ to socialization programmes the AIDS crisis and the pharmaceutical industry Digital Rights Management This book will be of interest to students and researchers of international political economy, international relations and intellectual property law.

Launching into a complete analysis of copyright law in our capitalistic and hegemonistic political system, Ronald Bettig uncovers the power of the wealthy few to expand their fortunes through the ownership and manipulation of intellectual property. Beginning with a critical interpretation of copyright history in the United States, Bettig goes on to explore such crucial issues as the videocassette recorder and the control of copyrights, the invention of cable television and the first challenge to the filmed entertainment copyright system, the politics and economics of intellectual property as seen from both the neoclassical economists and the radical political economists points of view, and methods of resisting existing laws. }Launching into a complete analysis of copyright law in our capitalistic and hegemonistic political system, Ronald Bettig uncovers the power of the wealthy few to expand their fortunes through the ownership and manipulation of intellectual property. Beginning with a critical interpretation of copyright history in the United States, Bettig goes on to explore such crucial issues as the videocassette recorder and the control of copyrights, the invention of cable television and the first challenge to the filmed entertainment copyright system, the politics and economics of intellectual property as seen from both the neoclassical economists and the radical political economists points of view, and methods of resisting existing laws.Beautifully written and well argued, this book provides a long, clear look at how capitalism and capitalists seize and control culture through the ownership of copyrights, thus perpetuating their own ideologies and economic superiority. }

This is an examination of the origins and impact of the agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) negotiated during the Uruguay Round of GATT talks. The principal theme is that the TRIPS agreement is not in the best interests of the poorer countries, and that its imposition on them by the richer countries has more to do with the exercise of political and economic power than with the positive economic benefits the agreement's supporters claim it can deliver. To support this assertion the book critically examines the economic evidence regarding the impact of intellectual property rights on such important variables as export performance, foreign investment, and economic growth. The author provides a political economic analysis of why the poorer countries acceded to the TRIPS agreement, illustrated with case studies of two important industries where the struggle over intellectual property is especially strong: pharmaceutical and agricultural biotechnology sectors. Designed for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in international political economy and international relations theory, the book offer a radical view of the process of globalization.