UK Intellectual Property Law

One justification for Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is the Labour-Desert Theory that the author of the IPR is entitled to the fruits of their labour. Conversely there are some IP scholars, such as W. Landes and R. Posner, who think that IPRs should be more freely available to encourage further innovation and to maximise the net social welfare.

Critically analyse the opposing views above with particular reference to copyright law, the material studied for tutorials 1 & 2 and your own research. You may want to consider, in particular, copyright use over the Internet.