Response to Dr Bollier: Towards a Copyleft?

Abstract

"Dr Bollier’s paper on intellectual property in the digital age is a timely and critical attempt to set an agenda for creating discussion on intangible goods, in particular information. According to him, nothing less is at stake than a fundamental element of democracy: free access and sharing of information lie at the heart of an open, democratic society . It is easy to agree with him about this and also about most other of his claims. Bollier’s analysis raises, however, numerous questions, of which I want to consider two related issues: the relationship between the publisher and the author and the idea of copyleft that has emerged in information technology."