David Koepsell

David Koepsell
Born	1969 New York
Occupation	Author, teacher, attorney

David R. Koepsell earned his PhD in Philosophy as well as his Law degree from the University of Buffalo where he studied with Barry Smith (ontologist). He has authored numerous articles as well as authored and edited several books, including Searle on the Institutions of Social Reality, co-edited with Laurence Moss, (Oxford UK: Blackwell 2003), Reboot World, (New York: Writer's Club Press 2003) (fiction), and The Ontology of Cyberspace: Law, Philosophy, and the Future of Intellectual Property ^[1][2][3] which has been translated into Japanese and Portuguese. He has lectured worldwide on issues ranging from civil rights, philosophy, science, ontology, intellectual property theory, society, and religion. Koepsell has practiced law, worked for Bowstreet, Inc. as an ontologist in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and taught at SUNY Buffalo. He was appointed Asst. Prof. of Philosophy at TU Delft beginning in September 2008. He is an associate editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He is the co-founder, with Edward Summer, of Carefully Considered Productions, an educational media not-for-profit corporation.

Major theses

In stark contrast to the work of Michael R. Heim, who has promoted a platonic dualism in his discussions of cyberspace and virtual reality, Koepsell has argued for a Searlean realism about all expression. Cyberspatial entities are expressions of the same type as any other intentionally produced, man-made object. Koepsell's work uses legal ontology and common sense ontology to examine social objects. In the process, Koepsell criticises the distinction between patentable and copyrightable objects as artificial, and argues for an open source approach to all intellectual property.^[4][5]

Koepsell's research interests focus on the nexus of ethics, law, and science.^[6] Specifically, while at Yale as a Visiting Fellow (2006–2007), he investigated ethical questions involved in the practice of bioprospecting and patenting elements of the human genome. Koepsell argues that there are two forms of commons, a) fiat and b) natural, otherwise called "commons by choice" and "commons by logical necessity." He has recently argued that DNA, like radio spectra, sunlight, and air, falls into the category "commons by logical necessity" and attempts to own genes by patent are unjust.^[7] His book on the subject, entitled Who Owns You, was published by Wiley-Blackwell in March 2009.^[8] While it was endorsed by Nobel Prize winner John Sulston as "[a] lucid and compelling deconstruction of current practice in the patenting of human genes, exposing inherent contradictions in the process and offering practical ways to resolve them,"^[9] a starkly contrasting review of Who Owns You? has also recently been published.^[10] Favorable reviews appear in De Ingenieur,^[11] The Guardian,^[12] Choice Reviews,^[13] and the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.^[14]

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

References

1. ^ Lin, Rita, The Ontology of Cyberspace: Law, Philosophy, and the Future of Intellectual Property, review in The Harvard Journal of Law and Technology Vol. 14, No. 1 (2000)
2. ^ Finnerty, Thomas V. "The Ontology of Cyberspace" review, Journal of High Technology Law (2003) https://www.law.suffolk.edu/highlights/stuorgs/jhtl/book_reviews/2003_2004/finnerty.pdf
3. ^ Morin, Arthur, "The Ontology of Cyberspace" book review, Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies" (2002) http://rccs.usfca.edu/bookinfo.asp?ReviewID=148&BookID=128
4. ^ Floridi, Luciano, The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information (Blackwell, 2003) p. 165
5. ^ Open Source Culture syllabus: http://nothing.omweb.org/modules/wakka/OpenSourceCultureSyllabus/show?time=2004-09-09+03%3A20%3A10
6. ^ George P. Fletcher and Steve Sheppard, American law in a Global Context (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 394
7. ^ "Rights to One's own Genes: DNA as a Commons," conference presentation at IEET and IHEU conference, May 12, 2007. http://ieet.org/archive/koepsell.mp3
8. ^ Who Owns You: The Corporate Gold-Rush to Patent Your Genes http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-140518731X.html
9. ^ http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53833395
10. ^ http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=17005
11. ^ http://www.deingenieur.nl/index.html 21 Augustus 2009, p.12
12. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/17/steven-poole-nonfiction-choice 17 October 2009,
13. ^ http://www.cro2.org/default.aspx?page=reviewdisplay&pids=3510015
14. ^ . PMC 2794502. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=2794502. 

External links

• Official website
• Movie production website
• 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology

Persondata
Name	Koepsell, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1969
Place of birth	New York
Date of death
Place of death