Lunchtime Listen: A history of intellectual property

Here is an entertaining and informative 52 minute podcast that gives an historical overview of patents and copyright and other “intellectual property” issues from an American perspective. Although they do not discuss government information issues specifically, the history they do discuss provides the context for the public good of public information and the attempts to privatize or commodify public information.

This is definitely informative, but The American History Guys of Backstory (Ed Ayers, Peter Onuf, and Brian Balogh) are more like the Car Guys than your high school history teacher. They discuss everyone from Mark Twain to Phyllis Diller and guests include Ananda Chakrabarty, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Kembrew McLeod, University of Iowa, Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University. Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, and Chris Sprigman, University of Virginia School of Law.

Listen and enjoy.

• Patent Pending: A History of Intellectual Property, The American History Guys, Backstory (May 20, 2013).

  Can genes be patented? Are downloaders inhibiting musical creativity — or enhancing it? This week’s BackStory explores how Americans have viewed “intellectual property” over time. What exactly is intellectual property? And what are protections for these kinds of rights supposed to achieve? The American History Guys look to the past for answers.

• Download the mp3 file.
• Subscribe to the Backstory podcast.

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