Law

The most conspicuous field of power is that of law. Intellectual Property is created by law, and IP could have been, and can be different, or even not exist at all, all depending on the law. The important question for this field is who's interests will be law, that of authors, publishers, the public, or society. Something that is easily forgotten is that the law is both the subject of the disputes about IP, and - by referring to the illegality of certain acts - used as a means in the conflicts about it.

Law is considered to be established democratically in the West, but lobbying and misinformation also play their part there. Especially internationally, force and the bundling of treaties, such as in the case of the WTOs TRIPs which included IP clauses, are also important ways to shape the law. In addition the interpretation of existing laws provides quite some leeway for establishing jurisprudence (which practically then function as new laws, especially in the UK and US, and other tradition-based legal systems), and thus money to hire more and better lawyers makes an important difference here too.

Currently IP is relatively strong, and it lasts on average at least 80 years longer than the 14 years it should to induce the creation of new works according to various estimates. Enforcement on the other hand, especially outside the commercial sphere, is very weak. And both the existence of fair use exceptions (in the US), and the fact that in some countries (like the Netherlands) downloading (not uploading / providing), or sharing files privately with friends, is legal, does allow for some leeway, though exceptions are uncertain and vary from case to case.