Adam D. Moore

Adam Daniel Moore (born 1965) is a philosopher and Professor at the University of Washington Information School. He conducts research and teaches in the areas of information ethics (intellectual property, privacy, free speech, hacking/security), social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, and normative ethical theory.

Education and career Moore earned his bachelor's degree (1990), master's degree (1994), and a Ph.D. in philosophy (1997) from Ohio State University. Under the direction of Donald Clayton Hubin, Moore's dissertation was titled "A Lockean Theory of Intellectual Property." He worked as a teaching professor in the philosophy department at California State University, Fresno, CA (1998 – 1999), and Wright State University, Dayton, OH (1999 – 2000), and as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI (2000 – 2003). In 2003 he moved to the University of Washington and held a joint position as an Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Information School and the Philosophy Department. In 2013 Moore moved to the Information School full time and was promoted to Professor in 2016.

Philosophical work He is the author of Intellectual Property: Moral and Legal Foundations, Privacy Rights: Moral and Legal Foundations, and Intellectual Property and Information Control. Moore is also the editor of Privacy, Security, and Accountability: Ethics, Law, and Policy, Information Ethics: Privacy, Property, and Power, and Intellectual Property: Moral, Legal, and International Dilemmas.

Reviews of Privacy Rights: Moral and Legal Foundations note, "No-one who wants to know about the current state of the philosophical debate as to what privacy is and why it is valuable should ignore Moore’s contribution. It is and will be a most useful reference point for all future writing" and "Advocates of privacy should welcome Adam Moore's engaging defense of privacy rights, and in particular his iconoclastic challenge to the prevailing view that privacy is fine so long as it does not impinge on free speech."

Moore has published articles in many journals, including Social Philosophy and Policy, American Philosophical Quarterly, Bioethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, The Journal of Value Inquiry, and the Journal of Social Philosophy. He has also written the "Privacy" entry for The International Encyclopedia of Ethics and "Intellectual Property" for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Moore's Lockean account of intellectual property is defended in Intellectual Property: Moral and Legal Foundations and Intellectual Property and Information Control (2001/2004) as well as several articles including, “A Lockean Theory of Intellectual Property” (1998), “Intellectual Property: Theory, Privilege, and Pragmatism” (2003), “Intellectual Property” (2011/2014), “A Lockean Theory of Intellectual Property Revisited” (2012), and “Intellectual Property and the Prisoner's Dilemma: A Game Theory Justification of Copyrights, Patents, and Trade Secrets,” (2018). His account builds on John Locke's proviso that justified acquisitions must leave "enough and as good for others."

Public education, Media, Opinion Moore has been interviewed and cited by a wide range of national and local media, including Psychology Today, the Prindle Institute for Ethics, Newsweek, the Pacific Standard, Royal News, UCLA Privacy News, Utah State Today, ViPS, the Institute for Values in Policy and Science: Public Lecture Series on Privacy, Philosophy and Law Newsletter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (with Steven Schwinn, Adam D. Moore, Marc Rotenberg, Alberto Bernabe, and Kathryn Kolbert).

Selected publications

Books

As author Intellectual Property: Moral and Legal Foundations. Cambridge University Press, February 2026.

As editor

Articles

Journal

“A Lockean Theory of Intellectual Property Revisited." San Diego Law Review. 50 (2012): 1070-1103. “Free Speech, Privacy, and Autonomy." Social Philosophy and Policy. 37 (2021): 31-51. “Taxation, Forced Labor, and Theft: Why Taxation is 'On a Par' with Forced Labor.” Southern Journal of Philosophy. 58 (2020): 362-385. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12395 “Privacy, Security, and Government Surveillance: WikiLeaks and the New Accountability.” Public Affairs Quarterly. 25 (2011): 141-156. “Owning Genetic Information and Gene Enhancement Techniques: Why Privacy and Property May Undermine Social Control of the Human Genome.” Bioethics. 14 (2000): 97-119. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8519.00184

Encyclopedic

Thesis