Dana Beldiman (ed): Access to Information and Knowledge - 21st Century Challenges in Intellectual Property and Knowledge Governance

摘要

This publication, edited by Dana Beldiman, is a collection of 11 contributions provided by leading scholars and copyright masterminds addressing the ability to access and use information and knowledge in the 21st century. The common motivation of the contributors is the concern about far-reaching implications of a too-restricted access and flow of information and knowledge in today's society. But it is not about access to information and knowledge only, as the title of the book might suggest. It is also about the ability to use available information and knowledge. In her introduction, Beldiman precisely points out that knowledge is not only the output of a production process, but also the essential input within the process of creating new knowledge and wealth generation. In other words, all new knowledge is somehow connected with the already known. Consequently, too-restricted access to information and knowledge resources, e.g. by intellectual property rights, risks impeding innovation and creation.