The Eureka Myth: Creators, Innovators, and Everyday Intellectual Property

by Jessica Silbey

Are innovation and creativity helped or hindered by our intellectual property laws? In the two hundred plus years since the Constitution enshrined protections for those who create and innovate, we're still debating the merits of IP laws and whether or not they actually work as intended. Artists, scientists, businesses, and the lawyers who serve them, as well as the Americans who benefit from their creations all still what facilitates innovation and creativity in our digital age? And what role, if any, do our intellectual property laws play in the growth of innovation and creativity in the United States? Incentivizing the "progress of science and the useful arts" has been the goal of intellectual property law since our constitutional beginnings. The Eureka Myth cuts through the current debates and goes straight to the the artists and innovators themselves. Silbey makes sense of the intersections between intellectual property law and creative and innovative activity by centering on the stories told by artists, scientists, their employers, lawyers and managers, describing how and why they create and innovate and whether or how IP law plays a role in their activities. Their employers, business partners, managers, and lawyers also describe their role in facilitating the creative and innovative work. Silbey's connections and distinctions made between the stories and statutes serve to inform present and future innovative and creative communities. Breaking new ground in its examination of the U.S. economy and cultural identity, The Eureka Myth draws out new and surprising conclusions about the sometimes misinterpreted relationships between creativity and intellectual property protections.

Genres: Law

368 pages, Hardcover

First published December 17, 2014

Reviews

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silbey has done a really valuable service in researching and writing this book. Most major book-length criticisms of intellectual property law talk about the public harms of over-enforcement—here, Silbey's put in the legwork to approach it from the more challenging (and maybe more compelling) side, looking at how the law and norms around IP match and mismatch with various creative workers' expectations.

That said, this book is definitely tuned to an audience that is familiar with the existing critiques of the IP system. It's an academic text, and has the corresponding quirks that can make it a little inaccessible to a general audience: things like heavily footnoted paragraphs and occasionally repeated text designed to make the chapters stand alone if read independently.

Still: this book completely dismantles the common trope among the proponents of perpetually stricter and more expansive IP laws that "the other side" just doesn't listen to artists. Silbey has done the work, and shows pretty clearly that across a wide swath of "creatives," over- and under-protection create real problems that merit real consideration. Highly recommended for people who are engaging with the policy reforms that would benefit from that.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone read this book. Professor Silbey's book is deeply flawed in terms of methodology, ignores obvious contradictions and counterarguments, and at times borders on disingenuous. At best, it is a naive seventh grade English essay. At worst, it paints a picture of creators and innovators that threatens their livelihoods using their own words.