When first written into the Constitution, intellectual property aimed to
facilitate "progress of science and the useful arts" by granting rights
to authors and inventors. Today, when rapid technological evolution
accompanies growing wealth inequality and political and social
divisiveness, the constitutional goal of "progress" may pertain to more
basic, human values, redirecting IP's emphasis to the commonweal instead
of private interests. Against Progress considers contemporary debates
about intellectual property law as concerning the relationship between
the constitutional mandate of progress and fundamental values, such as
equality, privacy, and distributive justice, that are increasingly
challenged in today's internet age. Following a legal analysis of
various intellectual property court cases, Jessica Silbey examines the
experiences of everyday creators and innovators navigating ownership,
sharing, and sustainability within the internet eco-system and current
IP laws. Crucially, the book encourages refiguring the substance of
"progress" and the function of intellectual property in terms that
demonstrate the urgency of art and science to social justice today.