I wonder if you may have come across an article on the same topic by Ven Varado written some years ago. He arrived at similar conclusions.

It's a bit amusing to me though when I read "I must state as usual that all rights are reserved".

kb

ashinpan wrote thus at 12:43 a 17/06/2012:

>Dear members,
>
>I have uploaded a new paper. It is entitled "Intellectual Property in Early Buddhism: A Legal and Cultural Perspective." It is an extended and revised version of a paper I presented at the International Buddhist Conference (2012 Feb.), Buddhasravaka Bhiksu University, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, and the abstract is as follows:
>
>"In this paper, I examine the modern concepts of intellectual property, and account for their significance in monastic law and culture of early Buddhism. As a result, I have come to the following conclusions:
>1. The infringement of copyrights, patents, and trademarks does not amount to theft as far as Theravadin Vinaya is concerned.
>2. A trademark infringement involves telling a deliberate lie, so entails an offense of expiation (paacittiya), but I cannot find any Vinaya rule which is transgressed by copyright and patent infringements.
>3. The Buddha did recognize the right to intellectual credit, but owing to the commenta­rial interpretations, some traditional circles have come to maintain that intellectual credit can be transferred to someone else."
>
>As I intend to send it to a scholarly journal, I must state as usual that all rights are reserved. All comments are hearily welcome.
>
>with metta,
>
>Ven. Pandita