Intellectual Property & Monopoly Capitalism — with Cecilia Rikap

Crash Course Economics

In this second Crash Course episode of the series on Big Tech, Techno-feudalism and Democracy, we will zoom in on intellectual property. We have invited political economist Cecilia Rikap to explain where intellectual property comes from, what its role is in fabricating monopoly power, and why it is important to understand the rise of Big tech and Big Pharma.
Rodrigo and Sara asked Rikap:

• Is ‘intellectual monopoly capitalism’ a new accumulation regime?
• And how does it change the rules of the game?
• How does intellectual monopoly capitalism fit in the growing geo-political struggle between the US and China?

Cecilia Rikap is a political economist, researcher CONICET, Univ de Paris & COSTECH Univ Tech Compiègne. She studies the rising concentration of intangible assets, focusing on power relations and the distribution of data and innovation economic gains, resulting geopolitical tensions, and the effects on knowledge commons & development. Rikap just finished her new book Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual monopoly capitalism uncovered.

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Music credit: "Capital G" by Nine Inch Nails, "Tribal Remix" by Imnotlouis (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)