Laura E. DeNardis, Ph.D.

Yale Law School

This fall, I will be teaching Access to Knowledge at Yale Law School.

ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE

Course Description

Access to Knowledge (20428). 2 or 3 units. Students in this course will work on projects that promote innovation and distributive justice through the reform of intellectual property, technical architectures, and telecommunications laws, treaties, and policies both internationally and in specific countries. These laws, treaties, and policies shape the delivery of health care services, technology, telecommunications access, education, and culture around the globe. Students will supplement their projects with theoretical readings and frequent contact with Information Society Project Fellows. Paper required. Substantial Paper credit available. Permission of the instructor required.

Course Logistics & Expectations

Meets Wednesdays, 3:10pm-5:00pm.

The first five weeks of the semester will focus on background readings presenting essential concepts for understanding the theory and political economy of access to knowledge. The remaining weeks of the course will involve readings and discussions specific to each of the practicum projects. A description of this semester’s practicum projects will be distributed during the first class and also posted to YLS Inside. Students wishing to work on a self-designed project should seek the instructors’ approval prior to the start of the term. Each project will be supervised by an Information Society Project fellow.

Aside from equipping students with a foundational knowledge of access to knowledge theory and concepts, the practicum will serve as a workshop for students’ academic and/or advocacy projects, offering frequent feedback in a collegial and collaborative setting. Students will take turns presenting their evolving work in class, submitting materials for your colleagues’ review no later than Sunday evening. By Tuesday evening, students not presenting that week will return preliminary comments by email. These comments will assist the presenter in framing discussion during class time.

Students who have participated in the A2K Practicum in the past are welcome to take the class again and work on new projects.

WEEK 1: What is Access to Knowledge?

The first week features a very slim set of readings, on the assumption that some students will still be shopping for classes, and because only one half of the class time will be devoted to discussion of readings. The other half of class time will focus on explaining the structure of the class and describing the specific projects that students can choose among this semester.

Shaver, Lea. 2008. Introduction, Access to Knowledge in Brazil: New Research on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development. (10 pages) http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/6620.htm

PANOS London Media Briefing. Common Knowledge: How access to information and ideas can drive development. (8 pages) http://www.panos.org.uk/download.php?id=5

Benkler, Yochai. 2003. The Political Economy of the Commons. (5 pages) http://www.benkler.org/Upgrade-Novatica%20Commons.pdf

Balkin, Jack. 2006. What is Access to Knowledge? Balkinization, Apr. 21. (5 pages) http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/04/what-is-access-to-knowledge.html

WEEK 2: Key Concepts in Access to Knowledge (Feb. 4)

This week’s readings cover some key concepts and ideas underlying the access to knowledge paradigm, which will be foundational for the rest of the semester. Read the materials in the suggested order, read them carefully, and bring your questions to class!.

Atkinson, Robert. 2004. Review: Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. Issues in Science and Technology. p. 1 ( 1 page) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3622/is_200404/ai_n9395194

Mokyr, Joel. 2002. Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy. Princeton University Press. pp. 1-27 (27 pages) http://books.google.com/books?id=alOdfmgXaEoC (Some pages are missing from the online version; full copy on reserve in the library)

Boyle, James. 2007. Five Questions for James Boyle. KEStudies, vol. 1, pp.1-5. (5 pages) http://kestudies.org/ojs/index.php/kes/article/view/29/31

Benkler, Yochai. 2006. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven/London: Yale University Press. pp. 1-27 & 35–58 (50 pages) http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/wealth_of_networks/Main_Page

WEEK 3: Access to Knowledge and Intellectual Property Law (Feb. 11)

Joseph Stiglitz. “Intellectual Property Rights and Wrongs.” Daily Times. August 16, 2005. (1) http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_16-8-2005_pg5_12

Jaffe, Adam B. and Joshua Lerner. 2006. “Opinion: Innovation and Its Discontents.” The Wall Street Journal. March 21, 2006. (3 pages) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114290663621603691.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

Lessig, Lawrence. 2005. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. Penguin. pp. 7-11, 13, 17-20 (10 pages) http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf

Grandstand, Ove. 2006. Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights. The Oxford Handbook of Innovation (eds. Jan Fagerberg et al). Oxford University Press. pp. 266-290. (25 pages) http://books.google.com/books?id=AIl_xnV7IMoC

James Bessen & Michael Muerer. 2008. Patent Failure: How Judges, Lawyers and Bureaucrats put Innovators at Risk. Princeton University Press. pp. 1-28 (28 pages) http://www.researchoninnovation.org/dopatentswork/

Scotchmer, Suzanne. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Cumulative Research and the Patent Law, 5 J. of Economic Perspectives 29–41 (1991). (12 pages) http://www.jstor.org/pss/1942700 [Use Yale VPN connection to access JSTOR.]

WEEK 4: The Political Economy of Access to Knowledge (Feb. 18)

Sell, Susan K. 2003. Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights. Cambridge University Press. p. 96-120. (25 pages) http://books.google.com/books?id=B81qmONSs9cC

Boyle, James. 2003. The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain. Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 66, pp. 33-74. (40 pages) http://ssrn.com/abstract=470983

Okediji, Ruth L. Development in the Information Age, UNCTAD-ICTSD Programme on IPRs and Sustainable Development (2004), pp. 7-11 (5 pages) http://www.iprsonline.org/unctadictsd/docs/CS_Okediji.pdf

Obama-Biden Campaign Statement on Technology Policy. 2008. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/

WEEK 5: The Emerging Access to Knowledge Movement (Feb. 25)

Kapczynski, Amy. 2008. The Access to Knowledge Mobilization and the New Politics of Intellectual Property. The Yale Law Journal, vol. 117, pp. 806-10, 820-59 . (42 p.) http://yalelawjournal.org/images/pdfs/642.pdf

Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Fall 2004. (3 pages) http://www.cptech.org/ip/wipo/futureofwipodeclaration.html.

Boyle, James. 2004. A Manifesto on WIPO and the Future of Intellectual Property, 2004 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 9 (2004). (12 pages) http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2004dltr0009.html

Proposal By Argentina and Brazil for the Establishment of a Development Agenda. (5 p.) http://www.wipo.org/documents/en/document/govbody/wo_gb_ga/pdf/wo_ga_31_11.pdf
Dudas, Jonathan. 2004. Speech to Annual American Intellectual Property Law Association (5 pages) http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/speeches/2004oct15.htm

WEEKS 6 ONWARD: Project-Focused Readings
Readings for the remainder of the semester will be focused on the specific projects selected.