译者按知识产权的正当性基础并不是个新鲜的话题。然而在大洋彼岸,那个两个多世纪前已经率先把知识产权条款写入宪法的国家,关于这个话题的思考与辩论却从未停止。关于知识产权本质是一种财产权还是政府对自由市场的规制、专利保护是否已经过强以致形成“反公地悲剧”、版权的扩张是否不当以致背离了自由市场原则等等问题的争论不仅未随时间过去而尘埃落定,反 The translator’s basis on the legitimacy of intellectual property is not a fresh topic. Yet on the other side of the oceans, the country that has spearheaded the entry of intellectual property provisions into the constitution more than two centuries ago, the thinking and debate on this topic have never ceased. The controversy over whether intellectual property is essentially property rights or government regulation of free markets, whether patent protection is so strong that the formation of “anti-commons tragedies”, improper expansion of copyright, or deviate from the principle of free market is not only controversial Not with the passage of time and the dust settles, anti