Deconstructing Stupidity

James Boyle, a law professor at Duke, has written a very nice little article on why intellectual property law and policy as we know it is so stupid. He moves past the easy "corporate capture of the decision making process" explanation toward trying to understand the real reasons behind the unprofitable, public-domain damaging decisions we keep making regarding IP law. He rightly refers to these decisions as "stupid" because they are motivated by a lack of understanding and a systematic omission of evidence upon which to base any understanding. I've quoted this guy a lot in my own writings on intellectual property, especially as it relates to information and media. One of the few people who actually understands intellectual property law's raison d'être.