Rawls, proprietatea intelectuală și pirateria online
Rawls, intellectual property and online piracy

Summary/Abstract: Is there a Rawlsian case in favor of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) like copyrights or patents? While the academic debate focused on other philosophers (chiefly among them Locke, Hegel and even Kant), recent work has tried to make the claim that the author of A Theory of Justice might be favorable to such an institutional arrangement. The purpose of the following paper is that of critically assessing this claim. Drawing on the works of Robert Merges and Justin Hughes, I will present the tentative Rawlsian case in favor of IPR. In the next section of the paper I will try to show why this case fails, due to the inherent tension between copyrights and patents, on the one hand, and Rawls’s principles of justice. I will conclude by exploring whether, quite the contrary, Rawls might actually have a favorable view on online media piracy and IPR infringement.

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