From fields to phones the laws that protect IP lock in wealth and food inequality by holding control on the ingenuity and creativity of the producer and farmer

A drone2 hovers over a pre-dawn agricultural landscape, assessing the soil and its moisture content. Utilizing its programmed sensors, the drone adjusts and disgorges a thin mist of pesticides, measured and calibrated to that specific moment in time and space, all while calculating wind direction and temperature.3 Meanwhile, your smart phone, without touch tapping, computes your estimated work commute time based on present and future traffic and weather conditions. The phone announces a lunch appointment scheduled later that afternoon and displays an Instagram photo of the appointment guest. A Nest thermostat,4 which can detect your presence in any room, adjusts the temperature as you leave your home.5 The low energy radio ‘presence’ tags on your belt loop sends a text to the office that you’re leaving home and signals the coffee machine to begin making coffee or dispensing juice.6 This same system powers Square Wallet,7 which allows you to walk into the local Starbucks on your way to work and to pay by simply ordering.8 The radio tag on your body and the tag into the world is a key component of interconnectivity9 or as some have called it “the Internet of Everything.” This predictive sensing10 component in interconnectivity is not merely joined to convenience tasks. Rather, these predictive sensors utilize algorithms to determine, in advance, whether you are fit for a particular job or employment position.11

You arrive at work and gain entrance to the facility after a device affixed to an entryway recognizes you. The device employs facial recognition software and analyzes biometric12 information to determine who gains access to the space. At work, your current project relies on a microscale 3-D printer, which uses ink made from various synthetic and biological materials.13 The printer’s product output employs layers of artificial cells to create human organ tissue with layers, where each layer responds separately to environmental climatic fluctuations.14

After work, you indulge in your passion for writing music. You create original songs and melodies and use computer software applications15 to score these compositions. compositions. Unfortunately, when you sell your compositions, the contract for sale to a music company appears to allow the producer to co-own these songs in perpetuity.

But in a way, this does not even matter—the total payoff amount for the million-plus plays you have on Spotify16 amounts to less than eight cents per play.17 The song can be played on Spotify, Tidal,18 Apple Music19 or any number of expanding music streaming services owned by tech companies. Much like the temperature of your home, all of these streaming services can be activated merely by entering a room. Although the music and the lyrics are original, the beats20 were purchased from a digital site, the technical “know-how”21 acquired at work, and the signed contract allowed for distribution on a streaming22 network. This creates uncertainty as to the question of ownership.23

The issue of partial ownership of music may seem unrelated to the field where, earlier, the drone dispensed the pesticide. However, they are far more relatable that one may imagine. The patented24 seeds25 planted by the farmer are owned by an agribusiness company. As such, the farmer cannot sell or distribute the seeds, or use them in any manner outside of direct consumption after harvesting the crops.26 Nor can he graft or create a new species using the seeds from the next crop,27 even though diversity of plant species has been a hallmark of evolution and food distribution for centuries.28

All of the described technologies currently exist and are protected by intellectual property29 laws. Scholars, professors and even justices of the Supreme Court have written about the dangers of interconnectivity and privacy on our private lives.30 Yet, insufficient study has been directed toward the hazards posed therein, and the resulting wealth-income inequality31 divide that is, itself, exacerbated by interconnectivity and intellectual property laws.