Creativity Without Law: Challenging the Assumptions of Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) law assumes that creators have a fundamental legal right to prevent copying, and without this right they will under-invest in new work. But this premise ignores the range of powerful non-economic motivations that impel creativity and the capacity of creative industries for self-governance and innovative social and market responses to appropriation.

This book reveals the on-the-ground practices of a range of creators and innovators who rely on evolving social norms and market responses, as per their particular cultural, competitive, and technological circumstances, to ensure creative incentives. The accounts presented here will help ground debates over IP policy in the empirical realities of the creative process.