What Ifs and Other Alternative Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Stories: Foreword

Extract: The topic of this Symposium is What Ifs and Other Alternative Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Stories. The inspiration for this topic came from two different sources. The first half of the idea came to me when I was shopping in a bookstore in Hong Kong a few years ago. Around the turn of the millennium, military historian Robert Cowley put together a volume of essays with an eye-catching title, What If?TM: The Worlds Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. 1 Although I am not a fan of military history, the book caught my attention in the bookstore and left a strong impression of the possibilities for imagination and creative historical analysis. What If? became a New York Times bestseller and was followed by another set of equally, if not more, interesting essays, entitled What If?TM 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. 2 Unlike the first book, this one focuses on non-military events, covering issues that are more familiar and accessible to the general audience.

What Ifs and Other Alternative Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Stories: Foreword Academic Article