New technologies continue to democratize, decentralize, and disrupt production, offering the possibility that scarcity will be a thing of the past for many industries. We call these technologies of abundance. But our economy and our legal institutions are based on scarcity. Abundance lowers costs. When that happens, the elimination of scarcity changes the economics of how goods and services are produced and distributed. This doesn't just follow a normal demand curve pattern - consumption increases as price declines. Rather, special things happen when costs approach zero. Digitization and its effects on the production, organization, and distribution of information provide early examples of changes to markets and industries. Copyright industries went through upheaval and demands for new protections. But they are not alone. New technologies such as 3D printing, CRISPR, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and more are democratizing, decentralizing, and disrupting production in food and alcohol production, biotechnologies, and more, and even the production of innovation itself, opening the prospect of an abundance society in which people can print or otherwise obtain the things they want, including living organisms, on-demand.Abundance changes the social as well as economic context of markets. How will markets and legal institutions based on scarcity react when it is gone? Will we try to replicate that scarcity by imposing legal rules, as IP law does? Will the abundance of some things just create new forms of scarcity in others - the raw materials that feed 3D printers, for instance, or the electricity needed to feed AIs and cryptocurrency? Will we come up with new forms of artificial scarcity, as brands and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) do? Or will we reorder our economics and our society to focus on things other than scarcity? If so, what will that look like? And how will abundance affect the distribution of resources in society? Will we reverse the long-standing trend towards greater income inequality? Or will society find new ways to distinguish the haves from the have-nots?Society already has examples of each type of response. The copyright industries survived the end of scarcity, and indeed thrived, not by turning to the law but by changing business practices, leveraging the scarcity inherent to live performances and using streaming technology to remove the market structures that fed unauthorized copying, and by reorganizing around distribution networks rather than content creators. Newsgathering, reporting, and distribution face challenges flowing from democratized, decentralized, and disrupted production. Luxury brands and NFTs offer examples of artificial scarcity created to reinforce a sort of modern sumptuary code. And we have seen effective, decentralized production based on economics of abundance in examples ranging from open-source software to Wikipedia.In this introductory essay, we survey the potential futures of a post-scarcity society and offer some thoughts as to more (and less) socially productive ways to respond to the death of scarcity.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have emerged as an important medium for the creation, sale and collection of art, with many major business and fashion houses creating their own NFT projects. This book investigates the eruption of NFT crypto art, and its impact on copyright law. Chapters address topics at the intersection between AI, smart contracts, data science, copyright law and arts administration. With snapshots of the ongoing heated debates around copyright law, the book investigates whether NFTs violate copyright and moral rights, the liability of NFTs platforms, impacts on ethical issues such as counterfeiting. The first book published on this emergent topic, this book offers a comprehensive overview of opportunities and challenges raised by NFTs to copyright law and, more generally, to the regulation and economics of the creative and cultural industries. The book is addressed to law and tech enthusiasts as well as academics, students, practitioners and policy makers interested in the intersection between copyright rules and new forms of technology.

Cellular Agriculture: Technology, Society, Sustainability and Science provides a state-of-the-art review of cellular agriculture technologies. From cell selection to scaffolding and everything in-between, this book contains chapters authored by leading cellular agriculture researchers and product developers across the world.Driven by consumer desire for sustainable food production, animal welfare improvements, and better human health, companies around the world are racing to engineer alternative protein products with the best flavour, appearance, and texture. A major challenge many of these early-stage companies struggle with is having the foundational science and technical knowledge to start their journey in this emerging industry. This text provides detailed information on the current state of the science and technology of cellular agriculture. It combines the social aspects that need to be considered to create a level playing field to give each emerging idea the best chance at realizing the ultimate vision of cellular agriculture: satisfying the demand for protein around the world in a way that is better for humans, animals, and the planet.This is the first resource of its kind to take a practical approach to review the design, feasibility, and implementation of cellular agriculture techniques. With additional chapters on life cycle analyses and ideal transition scenarios, this book provides a resource for aspiring technology developers and academics alike, seeking evidence-based assessments of the industry and its disruptive potential. - Written by industry and academic experts for balanced perspective - Presents foundational information with practical application insights - Includes chapters on regulatory and policy issues - Reviews the sustainability challenges of alternative proteins

The Elgar Companion to Information Economics dexterously navigates this interdisciplinary field of research which celebrates the crucial contribution of information to decision making, market dynamics, and economic well-being. Offering a wealth of conceptual analysis, this erudite Companion embarks on an intellectual journey exploring the fundamentals of information economics. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

Economics is the nexus and engine that runs society, affecting societal well-being, raising standards of living when economies prosper or lowering citizens through class structures when economies perform poorly. Our society only has to witness the booms and busts of the past decade to see how economics profoundly affects the cores of societies around the world. From a household budget to international trade, economics ranges from the micro- to the macro-level. It relates to a breadth of social science disciplines that help describe the content of the proposed encyclopedia, which will explicitly approach economics through varied disciplinary lenses. Although there are encyclopedias of covering economics (especially classic economic theory and history), the SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society emphasizes the contemporary world, contemporary issues, and society. Features: 4 volumes with approximately 800 signed articles ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 words each are presented in a choice of print or electronic editions Organized A-to-Z with a thematic Reader's Guide in the front matter groups related entries Articles conclude with References & Future Readings to guide students to the next step on their research journeys Cross-references between and among articles combine with a thorough Index and the Reader's Guide to enhance search-and-browse in the electronic version Pedagogical elements include a Chronology of Economics and Society, Resource Guide, and Glossary This academic, multi-author reference work will serve as a general, non-technical resource for students and researchers within social science programs who seek to better understand economics through a contemporary lens.

Engaging and innovative, User Generated Law offers a new perspective on the study of intellectual property law. Shifting research away from the study of statutory law, contributions from leading scholars explore why and how self-regulation of intellectual property rights in a knowledge society emerges and develops. Analysing examples of self-regulation in the intellectual property law based industries, this book evaluates to what extent user generated law is an accurate model for explaining and understanding this process.

Introduction to and survey of the field of law and society. Includes interdisciplinary perspectives on law from sociology, criminology, cultural anthropology, political science, social psychology, and economics.

This book presents a careful, convincing critique of both reducing work hours and traditional full employment policies, advocating a policy of work time regulation that is appropriate for a twenty-first century post-industrial economy.

Aus dem Inhalt: Raymond Plant: The Austin Lecture: Socialism, End States and the Law Chris Bertram: Would a socialist society be able to dispense with law? Andrew Vincent: Socialism, Law and the State Tradition Elizabeth Kingdom: Socialism, State and Law. Response to Andrew Vincent David Feldman: The Left, Judicial Review and Theories of the Constitution Hugh Collins: Social Market and the Law of Contract Michael Luntley: The Long Aim of the Law? Response to Hugh Collins Christine Sypnowich: Rights and Community, Feminism and Social Justice Roger Brownsword: A Synthesis of Rights and Community: in a different register? Response to Christine Sypnowich Bibliography