这本书主要的哲学分析是基于这样一个事实，即知识财产法的目的是在我所称的“抽象物”上创设权利。这些抽象物是具有诸如科学知识、文字信息或技术等一般社会定义形式的无形物。

关于以诸如知识形式存在的抽象物的一个重要事实是，它们是不能由于使用而被耗尽的。事实上，情况恰恰相反，知识通过使用而获得增长。例如，对一个证明予以验证的数学家越多，越有可能找到其他更精妙的证明。阅读和解释一部作品的人越多，有关该作品的知识就越多。

知识遵循的是所谓的不断丰富的规律，而不是逐渐耗尽的规律。知识财产是一个潜在的危险的规范形式，因为它人为地制造知识稀缺现象，从而削弱知识不断丰富这一规律。

Dr. Peter Drahos is Solicitor and Barrister of the Supreme Court of South Australia.

Dr. Peter Drahos is the Herchel Smith Senior Research Fellow in Intellectual Property in the Intellectual Property Unit in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, University of London. He holds degrees in law, politics, and philosophy. He has taught in the Department of Politics at the University of Adelaide and in the Law Faculty at the Australian National University. He has been a Research Fellow in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. He was an officer of the Australian Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. He has been a consultant to numerous government departments. He has published in law and social science journals on a variety of topics including contract, legal theory, telecommunications, and intellectual property. He is the author of A Philosophy of Intellectual Property (1996) and, with John Braithwaite Global Business Regulation (1996). He has held research grants from the US National Science Foundation, the American Bar Foundation and the Australian Research Council.