Tom W. Bell's Writings

• Intellectual Privilege: Copyright, Common Law, and the Common Good (Mercatus Center, 2014)

• Five Reforms for Copyright, in Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive to Excess 109 (Jerry Brito, ed., Mercatus Center 2012)

• Pirates in the Family Room: How Performances from Abroad, to U.S. Consumers, Might Evade Copyright Law
  • PowerPoint presentation for 2021: International Law Ten Years From Now, Int'l L. Assoc. (American Branch) & Southwestern J. Int'l Law, February 26, Los Angeles, California
  • Paper (published at 18 Southwestern J. Int'l L. 253 (2011) (invited))
  
  
• Outgrowing Copyright: The Effect of Market Size on Copyright Policy, (draft v. 2008.03.07) [PDF format]

• The Future of Copyright, Cato Unbound, June, 2008 (online debate comprising an initial essay by each participant and subsequent written exchanges)

• The Specter of Copyism v. Blockheaded Authors: How User-Generated Content Affects Copyright Policy, 10 Vanderbilt J. Ent. & Tech. L. 841 (2008) (invited) (draft v. 2008.01.30) [PDF format]

• Copyright as Intellectual Property Privilege, 58 Syracuse L. Rev. 523 (2007) (invited)

• Codifying Copyright's Misuse Defense, 2007 Utah L. Rev. 573 (2007) (invited) [PDF format]

• Prediction Markets for Promoting the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts, 14 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 37 (2006) [PDF format]

• Misunderestimating Dastar: How the Supreme Court Unwittingly Revolutionized Copyright Preemption, 65 Maryland L. Rev. 206 (2006)

• Life, Liberty, and Intellectual Property, 2006 U. Ill. J.L. Tech. & Pol'y 92 (transcript of debate with Prof. Adam Mossoff)

• Authors' Welfare: Copyright as a Statutory Mechanism for Redistributing Rights, 69 Brooklyn L. Rev. 229 (2006)
  • Abstract
  • Paper [PDF format]
  
  
• A short essay on Copyright and Population (v.2002.09.17)

• Indelicate Imbalancing in Copyright and Patent Law, in Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age at 1 (Adam Thierer & Wayne Crews, eds 2002)
  • Published Paper (1.3 MB) [PDF format]
  • reprinted as Copy Fighting, Tech Central Station, August 5, 2002, at § Intellectual Property
  • The Great Debate on Intellectual Property, Cato Policy Report, January/February 2002, at 8 (excerpts from remarks made at Fifth Annual Technology & Society Conference: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age, Cato Institute & Forbes ASAP, Washington, DC, November 14, 2001) [PDF format]
  
  
• Escape from Copyright: Market Success vs. Statutory Failure in the Protection of Expressive Works, 69 U. Cin. L. Rev. 741 (2001)
  • Abstract
  • Copyright Term Chart
  • Full Text [PDF]
  
  
• Fair Use vs. Fared Use: The Impact of Automated Rights Management on Copyright's Fair Use Doctrine, 76 N. Carolina L. Rev. 557 (1998)
  • Abstract
  • Full text (250 KB)
  
  
• Intellectual Property and the New Economy, A Presentation in the Mercatus Center's New Economy Breakfast Series, Washington, DC, January 12, 2001 [PPT format]

• Cracking the Copyright Lock: A Debate about Implementing the WIPO Treaty, Introductory Comments at a Cato Institute Policy Forum, Washington, DC, May 14, 1998

• Treason, Technology, and Freedom of Expression, 37 Ariz. St. L. J. 999 (2005) [PDF format]

• Free Speech, Strict Scrutiny, and Self-Help: How Technology Upgrades Constitutional Jurisprudence, 87 U. Minn. L. Rev. 743 (2003)
  • Abstract
  • Full Text [PDF format]
  
  
• One-Click Treason, Tech Central Station, July 24, 2003, at § Terrorism

• Internet Privacy and Self-Regulation: Lessons from the Porn Wars (Cato Institute, Policy Briefing # 65, 2001)
  • For an exchange triggered by the paper, see CDT defends regulatory approach to privacy; Cato author replies, Politech, August 14, 2001.
  • For an earlier version of the paper, see Pornography, Privacy, and Digital Self-Help, 19 John Marshall J. Comp. & Info. L. 133 (2000).
    • Abstract
    • Draft (MS Word, 112 KB)

• Government Prediction Markets: Why, Who, and How, 116 Penn. St. L. Rev. 403 (2011)

• Commentary on Predicting Crime, 52 Ariz. L. Rev. 65 (2010) [PDF format]

• Private Prediction Markets and the Law, 3 J. Prediction Markets 89 (2009) [PDF format]

• Joint Comment on CFTC Concept Release on the Appropriate Regulatory Treatment of Event Contracts, July 6, 2008 (response to request for comments co-signed by 19 academics, professional traders, and laypeople) [PDF format]

• Private Prediction Markets' Legality Under U.S. Law, Conference on Corporate Applications of Prediction/Information Markets, University of Kansas Business School and Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City, MO (November 1, 2007) (presentation) [PPT format]

• Prediction Markets for Promoting the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts, 14 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 37 (2006) [PDF format]

• Gambling for the Good, Trading for the Future: The Legality of Markets in Science Claims, 5 Chapman L. Rev. 159 (2002) [PDF format]

• Online-Gambling Foes Lose a Hand, Cato Commentary, July 22, 2000; republished in Orange County Register, July 30, 2000, at Commentary 2, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Oct. 24, 2000, at 6, and Lottery Insights, November 2000, at 26.

• Gambler's Web, Reason, October, 1999, at 25
  • That article prompted a sharp exchange between Senator Kyl and me, which ran as letters to the editor in a subsequent issue of Reason.
  • The article was republished in slightly edited form in CyberEthics at 140-43 (Terry Halbert & Elaine Ingulli, eds. 2001).
  
  
• Internet Gambling: Popular, Inexorable, and (Eventually) Legal (Cato Institute, Policy Analysis # 336, 1999)

• The Urge To Regulate The Internet Strikes Again, Bridge News Service, March 24, 1999

• Interview of Prof. Tom W. Bell, Casino Wire, March, 1999

• Internet Gambling: Prohibition v. Legalization, Testimony Before the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, Chicago, IL, May 21, 1998
  • Prepared Testimony, in PDF or HTML format
  • Transcript of Actual Testimony (including disclosure of my own little gambling conspiracy)
  • Transcript of Q & A Session (including, "COMMISSIONER DOBSON: For what it's worth, of all the people who have testified before us, I think I disagree most strongly with you, sir. MR. BELL: Thank you.")
  
  
• Internet Gambling: Impossible to Stop, Wrong to Outlaw, Regulation, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1998, at 16 [PDF format; scroll down to p. 16]

• Internet Gambling Ban Faces Losing Odds The Times Union (Albany, NY), January 6, 1998, at A7

• The Impact of Blogging on the Practice of Law: Hit the Snooze Button, 11 Nexus 75 (2006) [PDF format]

• The Common Law in Cyberspace, 97 Mich. L. Rev. 1746 (1999) (reviewing Peter Huber, Law and Disorder in Cyberspace (1997))
  • Abstract
  • Text as published [PDF format] (7 MB)
  • Outline and text with internal links [HTML format] (113 KB)
  
  
• Regulators' Revenge (Tom W. Bell & Solveig Singleton, eds., 1998)
  • Tom W. Bell & Solveig Singleton, Introduction.
  • Order a copy of the book here.

• Copyright, The First Amendment, and Unoriginal Speech, Keynote presentation at "Censorship At Every Turn," a Liberty Tree Program and Cal. State, Fullerton Comm Week Special Event, Friday, April 30, 2010, Fullerton, California

• Op-Ed: White-Hat Terrorism, Tech Central Station, November 7, 2003, at § Terrorism

• Op-Ed: Bomb Iraq! with Ballots, Tech Central Station, October 4, 2002, at § Iraq [alternate source]

• Virtual Trade Dress: A Very Real Problem, 56 Maryland L. Rev. 382 (1997) (winner of the 1998 Ladas Memorial Award)
  • Abstract
  • Full text (200 KB)
  
  
• Software makes doing your taxes TOO easy, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 14, 2002, at E4; also ran as Cracking the Tax Code, Daily Commentary, April 15, 2002 (Cato Institute)

• All's Not Fair in Internet Tax Wars, L.A. Daily Journal, February 1, 2001, at 6

• New Federal Law Enables E-Commerce, Orange County Lawyer, December, 2000, at 25

• Book Review: Online Law: The SPA's Legal Guide to Doing Business on the Internet (Thomas J. Smedinghoff ed., 1996), 3 Rich. J. L. & Tech. 1 (1997)

• Book Review: Henry H. Perritt, Law and the Information Superhighway (1996), 28 J. Maritime Law & Commerce 185 (1997)

• Usenet Death Penalty Coalition PICS a Fight with Spam, Telecom. & Elect. Media News, Fall 1997, at 1, 4

• Pork-Barrel Invades the Internet, This Just In, December 22, 1997.

• Digital Oral Culture, 4.06 Wired 121 (1996)

• Forward to the Past! The Rise of a Digital-Oral Culture

• Anonymous Speech, 3.10 Wired 80 (1995)

• Opinion: The Internet: Heavily Regulated by No One in Particular

• Critique: The Problem with 'Cyber-' (and Some Fixes)

• What Can Corporations Teach Governments About Democratic Equality? __ Social Philosophy & Policy __ (2015) (forthcoming; invited)

• The Constitution as if Consent Mattered, 16 Chapman L. Rev. 269 (2013)

• Startup Cities with Tom W. Bell, Reason.tv, Los Angeles, CA, July 23, 2013 [PPT]

• Principles of Contracts for Governing Services, 21 Griffith L. Rev. 472 (2012) (invited)

• Seasteading, Contracts for Governing Services, and the Consensual Constitution, 2011 Students for Liberty Southern California Regional Conference, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, November 12, 2011[PPTX]

• White Flag, Black Flag, and In Between Libertopia, Humphrey's Half Moon Inn & Suites, San Diego, CA, Oct. 22, 2011 [PPT]

• Libertarian-But Non-Originalist!-Constitutionalism, 2010 Students for Liberty Southern California Regional Conference, October 23, 2010, Malibu, California
  • Written Notes
  • PowerPoint Presentation

• Graduated Consent in Contract and Tort Law: Toward a Theory of Justification, 61 Case Western L. Rev. 17 (2010) (draft v. 2010.02.25) [PDF format], a revised version of Graduated Consent Theory, Explained and Applied, Chapman University School of Law, Legal Studies Research Paper Series, Paper No. 09-13 (March 2009) [PDF format]

• The Scale of Consent, Chapman University School of Law, Legal Studies Research Paper Series, Paper No. 09-01 (January 2009) [PDF format] (offering a draft part of the later paper, Graduated Consent Theory, cited above)

The Third Amendment

• "Property" in the Constitution: The View from the Third Amendment, 20 William & Mary Bill of Rights J. 1243 (2012) (invited)

• The Third Amendment, in The Constitution and Its Amendments (Roger K. Newman ed., 1998)

• The Third Amendment: Forgotten But Not Gone, 2 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rights J. 117 (1993) (175 KB)

Various Other Legal Issues

• I've spoken at many events held by the Institute for Humane Studies.
  • The Origins and Nature of Law, IHS Liberty & Society Seminar, Chapman University, July 13, 2013 [PPT]
  • Writing, Reading, and Respecting a Constitution, IHS Liberty & Society Seminar, Chapman University, July 15, 2013 [PPT]
  • Copyrights, Property, and Freedom, IHS Liberty & Society Seminar, Chapman University, June 20, 2012 [PPT]
  • Living Lives that Respect Liberty, IHS Liberty & Society Seminar, Chapman University, July 18, 2013 [PPT]

• Choosing a Specialization, in Law School and Beyond 21 (John Moser ed., 1999) [PDF format]

• Comment, Limits on the Privity and Assignment of Legal Malpractice Claims, 59 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1533 (1992) (100 KB)

• Polycentric Law in a New Century, Cato Policy Report, at 1, 10-11 (November/December 1998), reprinted in full and in PDF format at, Polycentric Law in a New Century, Policy, Autumn 1999, at 34, and offering a slightly revised and footnote-free version of, Polycentric Law in the New Millennium, which won first place in the Mont Pelerin Society's 1998 Friedrich A. Hayek Fellowship Competition.

• The Jurisprudence of Polycentric Law, (August 1992) (unpublished manuscript prepared for two consecutive classes taught by Prof. Richard A. Posner at the University of Chicago School of Law) (127 KB)

• Polycentric Law, 7 Humane Studies Rev. 1-2, 4-10 (1991/92)