Two papers that may be of interest to Lawmeme readers.
The first paper is "What Federal Gun Control Can Teach Us About the DMCA's Anti-trafficking Provisions," by Alfred Yen. An excerpt from the abstract (that does not really summarize the article):
This criticism starts with the observation that both federal gun control and the DMCA's anti-trafficking provisions respond to the misuse of technology. People misuse guns to commit crimes, and people misuse circumvention technology to commit copyright infringement. In both cases, Congress has used criminal law to keep technology away from those who might misuse it. In the case of circumvention technology, Congress has banned such technology at the expense of public of access to such technology for lawful purposes. In the case of guns, Congress has not imposed a ban precisely because it was concerned about preserving access to firearms for lawful purposes.
The second paper is "Intellectual Property Rights in Genes and Gene Fragments: A Registration Solution for Expressed Sequence Tags," by Molly A. Holman and Stephen R. Munzer. An excerpt from the abstract:
Out of the Human Genome Project and automated sequencing technology has arisen a controversy over the attempt to obtain patents on fragments of functional genes . . . and the genes themselves. . . . The article offers a solution to this debate by proposing a registration stem that, first, avoids the costs of patent prosecution and examination; second, has none of the adverse economic consequences of patenting expressed sequence tags; and, third, recognizes that expressed sequence tags have some value.
(Links via Legal Theory Blog.)