Protect or Plunder?: Understanding Intellectual Property Rights

by Vandana Shiva

Intellectual property rights, TRIPS, patents - they sound technical, even boring. Yet, as Vandana Shiva shows, what kinds of ideas, technologies, identification of genes, even manipulations of life forms can be owned and exploited for profit by giant corporations is a vital issue for our times.

In this readable and compelling introduction to an issue that lies at the heart of the so-called knowledge economy, Vandana Shiva makes clear how this Western-inspired and unprecedented widening of the concept does not in fact stimulate human creativity and the generation of knowledge. Instead, it is being exploited by transnational corporations in order to increase their profits at the expense of the health of ordinary people, and the poor in particular, and the age-old knowledge and independence of the world's farmers. Intellectual protection is being transformed into corporate plunder. Little wonder popular resistance around the world is rising to the WTO that polices this new intellectual world order, the pharmaceutical, biotech and other corporations which dominate it, and the new technologies they are foisting upon us.

Genres: Geography

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

A major figurehead of the alter-globalization movement as well as a major role player in global Ecofeminism, Dr. Vandana Shiva is recipient to several awards for her services in human rights, ecology and conservation. Receiving her Ph.D in physics at the University of Western Ontario in 1978, Dr. Vandana Shivas attentions were quickly drawn towards ecological concerns.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tend to agree, but I don't like the way this is done. Needs a better editor and more references to add credibility

[Arteteco · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Vandana Shiva is highly considered in the environemental movement, and the topic is quite close to my heart, as I feel so much is wrong with seed patents and such.
But I have to be honest, this book was quite a disappointment. It is filled with a lot of unsourced claims (only 2 references in the whole book), not substantiated positions, and plainly misleading historical facts. By misleading I don't mean false, but clearly cherry-picked and not explained well enough.

This book does not give the reader the tools to make up its own mind about the subject, it's mostly propaganda.

[As3 Na70 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be included in the reading list of (dis)courses on post/decolonization. Considering the intensified neoliberal and neocolonialism through global capitalism in the world we are today, Shiva’s argument remains relevant in critiquing the for-profit system of living and surviving both in the Global North and South. A highly recommended read to all critical thinkers critiquing our global economic and environmental in/justice.

[Federico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shiva tratta l'argomento da un punto di vista un po' troppo ristretto (solo brevetti biologici), ed è un po' ripetitiva (sono gli stessi temi degli altri suoi libri). Per il resto, tutto molto condivisibile.

[asha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting commentary on an essential issue most people won't have considered in their daily lives.

[Nic Paget-Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle says it all. Part of an important body of work.