>There is an opportunity for leftists in all of this as well, since the
>very dependence on state protection of their intellectual assets means
>that socialization of their assets require not active state intervention
>(traditional nationalization of heavy industry) but merely state
>withdrawal of IP rights. This vulnerability can be used to both build up
>new coalitions interested in publicly shared information goods, but also
>in a more strategic way to pressure companies in other spheres. The
>companies very dependence on IP laws may make them more willing to trade
>off support for better social welfare policies to keep those assets if
>they are strategically targetted.
But how much are we really talking about here? The culture industry and software, for sure, but what else? Economically speaking, these are rather small, though of course the culture industry's importance is mainly nonmonetary.
Doug