•  30
    Geistiges Eigentum und Originalität: Zur Politik der Wissens- und Kulturproduktion (edited book)
    with Günther Friesinger, Paul Lohberger, and Eberhard Ortland
    Turia + Kant. 2011.
    Mit der zunehmenden Bedeutung immaterieller Güter nimmt auch die Intensität der Konflikte um »Geistiges Eigentum« zu. Dabei fungiert der Mythos vom Original nach wie vor als Grundlage für Rechtsansprüche auf exklusive Verfügungsrechte. Wer ein Urheberrecht in Anspruch nehmen, eine Erfindung anmelden will, muss behaupten, die betreffenden Formen oder Verfahren seien das Ergebnis seiner originären kreativen Leistung. Aber was ist Originalität? Unter welchen Umständen wird sie wem zugerechnet? Dies…Read more
  •  257
  •  380
    Why are Software Patents so Elusive? A Platonic Approach
    Masaryk University Journal of Law and Technology 5 (1): 57-70. 2011.
    Software patents are commonly criticised for being fuzzy, context-sensitive, and often granted for trivial inventions. More often than not, these shortcomings are said to be caused by the abstract nature of software - with little further analysis offered. Drawing on Plato’s Parmenides, this paper will argue (1) that the reason why software patents seem to be elusive is that patent law suggests to think about algorithms as paradigmatic examples and (2) that Plato’s distinction between two modes o…Read more
  •  448
    Facing a decline of meta-narratives and the political subjects associated with them, substraction (‘Entzug’) has been proposed as a political strategy that seems more apt to present times. Drawing on Hegel’s ‘Philosophy of Right’ and Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence’, this paper argues that substraction too requires a meta-narrative and a political subject if it shall be a viable political strategy.
  • When it comes to works of art, intellectual property rights (IPR) are often argued to be natural rights, for each work of art, so we are told, is the expression of the particular ingenuity of an individual artist. The account of creativity to which such arguments allude, however, is that of Romanticism, so that one may question whether these arguments hold valid for contemporary artistic practices. Thus, this paper will construct a Hegelian justification for IPR that goes along with the Romantic…Read more
  •  404
    When it comes to works of art, intellectual property rights (IPR) are often argued to be natural rights, for each work of art, so we are told, is the expression of the particular ingenuity of an individual artist. The account of creativity to which such arguments allude, however, is that of Romanticism, so that one may question whether these arguments hold valid for contemporary artistic practices. Thus, this chapter will construct a Hegelian justification for IPR that goes along with the Romant…Read more