Putting Intellectual Property in its Place examines the relationship between creativity and intellectual property law on the premise that, despite concentrated critical attention devoted to IP law from academic, policy and activist quarters, its role as a determinant of creative activity is overstated. The effects of IP rights or law are usually more unpredictable, non-linear, or illusory than is often presumed.

Through a series of case studies focusing on nineteenth century journalism, "fake" art, plant hormone research between the wars, online knitting communities, creativity in small cities, and legal practice, the authors discuss the many ways people comprehend the law through information and opinions gathered from friends, strangers, coworkers, and the media. They also show how people choose to share, create, negotiate, and dispute based on what seems fair, just, or necessary, in the context of how their community functions in that moment, while ignoring or reimagining legal mechanisms. In this book authors Murray, Piper, and Robertson define "the everyday life of IP law", constituting an experiment in non-normative legal scholarship, and in building theory from material and located practice.

Laura J Murray is Associate Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Queen’s University. She is co-author with Samuel E Trosow of Canadian Copyright: A Citizen’s Guide (Between the Lines, 2007; second edition forthcoming 2013), and, with Tina S Piper and Kirsty M Robertson, of Putting Intellectual Property in its Place: Rights Discourses, Creative Labour, and the Everyday (forthcoming, Oxford, 2013). She has published in Indigenous studies and American literature; current research interests include history of reading, the nature of the newspaper, creative economies, and cultural policy.

Laura J. Murray's profile page

S. Tina Piper's profile page

Kirsty Robertson is an Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Museum Studies at Western University, Canada. Her research focuses on activism, visual culture, and changing economies. She has published widely on the topic and is currently finishing her book Tear Gas Epiphanies: New Economies of Protest, Vision, and Culture in Canada. More recently, she has turned her attention to the study of wearable technologies, immersive environments, and the potential overlap(s) between textiles and technologies. She considers these issues within the framework of globalization, activism, and creative economies. Her co-edited volume, Imagining Resistance: Visual Culture, and Activism in Canada, was released in 2011.

Kirsty Robertson's profile page