ABSTRACT
No attempt is made to propose a general theory of intellectual property. Such a theory would belong to a number of disciplines because intellectual property deals with information, rights, economic growth and power, not to mention the many subplots which are part of the whole story of intellectual property. This makes it a natural target for theorizing within ethics, political philosophy, economics, sociology and legal theory. Elaborating a satisfactorily integrated multidimensional theory of intellectual property is a big job. And, in any case, the goal of attempting to theorize a super-theory of intellectual property might be questioned. Post-modernists might see in such a theory a futile attempt to deliver the undeliverable about property - objective truths and relations. Property, they might say, is like an institutional shell which is used to cover a set of relations that are historically and culturally contingent and which over time are being continually reconfigured. The truth, they might say, is that there is no essentialist truth about property.
