ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores that People have intellectual liberties, and there are some things that cannot be done to them, and some duties that cannot be imposed on them, without violating those liberties. It argues that natural rights theories must include space for intellectual liberties, and so require the limitation of intellectual property rights, such as copyright and patent. It aims to philosophically defend the importance of the public domain and user's rights, and to do so through the use of natural rights thought, in particular as it is found in works of the seventeenth century forefather of liberalism, John Locke. It also aims to build a concerted case that considerations of natural justice and human freedom establish powerful constraints on the reach and substance of intellectual property rights. Turning to the next charge, instrumentalists often suggest natural rights theories are morally fraught in various ways.
