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Full-Text Articles in Law
Anti-Social Contracts: The Contractual Governance Of Virtual Worlds, Joshua A.T. Fairfield
Anti-Social Contracts: The Contractual Governance Of Virtual Worlds, Joshua A.T. Fairfield
Scholarly Articles
Virtual worlds have seized the imaginations of millions of people who now live, work, and play together in these new environments. But all is not well. These online communities are ruled nearly exclusively by contract law, through end-user licence agreements, terms of service, and codes of conduct. Contracts are a critical means of helping two (or a few) people negotiate their preferences. But online communities are made up of enormous and shifting populations that have no time or ability to negotiate agreements with every other community member. Relying on contracts alone thus threatens the investments and creativity that go into …
What If Seeds Were Not Patentable?, Elizabeth I. Winston
What If Seeds Were Not Patentable?, Elizabeth I. Winston
Scholarly Articles
In 2001, the United States Supreme Court held that seeds were patentable subject matter - a decision, I assert, of much discussion and little impact. Protection of agricultural intellectual property through private ordering, used both to expand the protection available through public ordering and to circumvent the restrictions public ordering places on owners of intellectual property, has provided the incentives necessary to promote investment and innovation in seeds. It has not been the patentability of seeds that has led to agricultural advances, but rather the profitability of licensing agricultural intellectual property. What if seeds were not patentable? So what if …