In The Big Steal: Ideology, Interest, and the Undoing of Intellectual Property, Professor Jonathan Barnett shows how an “accidental alliance” of tech platforms, academics, and advocacy groups weakened intellectual property (IP) protections for inventors and artists. Under the popular slogan that “information wants to be free,” many people in academia and the tech community advocated for actions by the United States Supreme Court, Congress, and antitrust agencies that eroded IP rights as digital platforms emerged in the tech and content markets. The result is a skewed innovation ecosystem that favors platform-based business models over the creative disruptors that ultimately drive the US knowledge economy. When information is free, the price paid by society can be high.

Please join Senior Fellow Adam Mossoff for a discussion with Professor Barnett about The Big Steal and what policymakers need to do to revive a healthy, growing US innovation economy that sustains America’s global tech leadership and its national security interests.