This book focuses on the question of how much control innovators should be given over their works. The first parts examine the trend to increase control: first, by expanding the scope of intellectual property rights to add new subject matter; secondly, through increasing transactionalautonomy. The former issue represents the key concerns of the intellectual property community; the latter issue is currently before both state and national legislatures.The question that these groups are debating is the subject of the next part: whether strong intellectual property rights, coupled with a high degree of transactional autonomy, promote innovation or chill interchange. One view is that the current legal regime should not be altered because itrepresents the right balance between the needs of information producers and the requirements of users. The contrary view is that stronger rights would allow potential collaborators to find one another, bargain for beneficial exchanges, and reallocate rights. The final sections explore the bases inconstitutions, laws, and treaties for protecting the public domain. Four judges from the US federal courts and the UK high court then debate the practicalities of the frameworks proposed.

Professor Dreyfuss is currently the director of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy, which sponsors interdisciplinary research on questions concerning the allocation of global resources to creative enterprises. Her research and teaching interests include intellectual property, privacy, the relationship between science and law, and civil procedure.
Diane Leenheer Zimmerman is Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. She writes about first amendment, women's rights and intellectual property issues. She lectures frequently in the United States and abroad on copyright, innovation policy and theory, libel, privacy, commercial speech, the regulation of pornography, and other issues. Harry First joined the faculty of New York University School of Law in 1976, where he currently teaches. Professor First is currently on leave from his position at NYU, serving as Chief of the Antitrust Bureau in the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York.