Sean Johnson Andrews Publishes New Book on Intellectual Property Rights
Humanities, History, and Social Sciences Associate Professor Sean Johnson Andrews’ latest book The Cultural Production of Intellectual Property Rights: Law, Labor, and the Persistence of Primitive Accumulation was published by Temple University Press on February 19. The book has also been chosen to be made Open Access through the program Knowledge Unlatched.
The book was selected as a candidate by Temple University Press. A panel of librarians chose it as one of the Front List titles, and then 287 libraries around the world pledged money to sponsor the fees to make both the 171 Front list and 272 backlist titles available to free to the public. “I am really pleased to have my book included. It is great to have its distribution made possible through a model for a sustainable commons. Libraries pool the money they already spend on monographs or journals and instead pay the fees to make them available to all—truly fulfilling the library's mission to society. More than anything, I hope its availability will make it more widely read,” says Andrews.
The Cultural Production of Intellectual Property Rights examines the contemporary conceptualization of and debates over intellectual property rights. Andrews explains in his work that “if we want to rebalance the protection of copyrights and trademarks, we should focus on undermining the reified culture of property that underpins capitalism as a whole.” His book is available for purchase here.
