Anti-Counterfeiting Lobby

Copying is an essential part of the diffusion phase of innovation, a view that was once taken for granted. Now that intellectual property rights have been strengthened and extended to cover the world, it is less acceptable. Rights holders jealously guard their monopolies against piracy and counterfeiting, arguing that strong intellectual property rights (IPR) facilitate not only their own innovation, but also that of the developing world. The pharmaceutical industry is especially strident in advocating an IPR route to innovation, and anxious that those who have trouble regarding information as property see the error of their ways. To this end, it has joined in common purpose with many of the creative industries to lobby governments and the public. The paper investigates their lobbying efforts and finds them curiously clumsy. With such vast resources at its disposal, why does the lobby not do better? Does the lobby aim to obfuscate rather than persuade? The role of copying in innovation will not be better understood without data that only industry can supply. Industry, it would seem, would much rather lobby