ABSTRACT
Structuralist and determinist accounts of social forces generally argue that one area of social life—the means and relations of production, the mediation of the fundamental tension between self and others, or the patterns of childrearing—is the real determinant of history. The "marketplace of ideas" is more than just a random metaphor: it is an accurate summation of many of the assumptions that our society brings to the discussion of information issues. As currently constructed however, intellectual property in particular and information issues in general seem to be in the thrall of an idea that is taken as truth where it should be questioned as dogma. Economists analyze some information from the “commodity” side and other information from the “perfect information” side, but they can neither produce a theoretical metaprinciple. Professor Levmore’s article on insider trading and contract law styles as “contemptible” the farmer who “to preserve a fraud claim, asks specific questions about activities he would otherwise never engage in”.
