Research Catalog

Title

The ontology of cyberspace : philosophy, law, and the future of intellectual property / David R. Koepsell.

Author

Koepsell, David R. (David Richard)

Publication

Chicago, IL : Open Court, c2000.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 139 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

• "David Koepsell demonstrates that it is nothing more than a medium of human expression. The term "cyberspace" is misleading if it suggests a dimension beyond ordinary experience. Cyberspace is revolutionizing our lives, yet ontologically it is "nothing very special."" "Popular culture is filled with misconceptions about cyberspace, mistakenly envisioned as a strange, "virtual" realm of intangible objects with bizarre properties defying common sense. In fact, electrical charges take up space as atoms take up space. Bits and bytes, like printed letters, exist in ordinary space and are objects of ordinary experience."
• "Koepsell carefully defines and examines such entities as bits, bytes, algorithms, programs, software, networks, the Internet, e-mail, Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), Usenet threads, and Virtual Reality (VR), making their ontological status clear." "While earlier philosophers have failed to address the ontological problems of cyberspace, the legal system is grappling with its practical problems. Software has bewildered jurists, who cannot decide whether it is an "expression," covered by copyright law, or a "machine," subject to patent law. Professor Koepsell dispels some of the confusions in legal thinking and discusses possible reforms in the law of intellectual property."--Jacket.

Subject

• Intellectual property > Methodology > Philosophy
• Industrial property > Methodology > Philosophy
• Copyright and electronic data processing > Philosophy
• Cyberspace > Philosophy
• Ontology

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-133) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Ontology: Its Correct Object and Method -- Some Methodologies of Legal Ontology -- The Legal Ontology of Intellectual Property -- The Legal Ontology of Software -- The Commonsense Categories of Cyberspace -- Artifice and Expression -- A New Ontology of Cyberspace -- Implications of the New Ontology of Cyberspace.

ISBN

0812694236 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^00055769^

OCLC

• 44420778
• SCSB-10009573

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library