Intellectual Property and Open Source

Preface

I have a workbench in my garage where I keep some of my woodworking tools. While I am not a great carpenter—actually, I’m a pretty terrible carpenter—I still enjoy building things and working with the wood.

Although I have had my workbench set up for several years, I am always a little bit tentative when I first use a new power tool. I have learned to respect the fact that tools can be useful, but they can also be difficult or dangerous if not used correctly. To adopt a phrase used with some other tools, it can be too easy to shoot yourself in the foot.

This book is about a tool that we use called intellectual property—IP for short. We use IP to allocate value and create incentives in society. Just like many other powerful tools, IP can be very useful, but it can also be difficult to work with. You can (easily!) shoot yourself in the foot with intellectual property if you don’t understand how and why this tool works.

Unfortunately, there are few topics quite as misunderstood as intellectual property. Take a detour through the comments section of almost any recent Slashdot discussion. Many contributors begin their comments with, “IANAL, but...” (“I am not a lawyer, but...”) and then attempt to describe a legal principle, often incorrectly.

Part of my job each day is to work as a translator—translating from “lawyer” to “engineer” and back. For lawyers, I describe the interactions between computers, networks, and code. For engineers, I describe how to work with the legal system. ...