All Posts Tagged With: "copyright"
Contra-IP
My article “Patent Nonsense,” which makes the libertarian case against “intellectual property,” was published and posted by The American Conservative magazine. Read it here.
3Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Internet Dodges the SOPA Bullet — for Now
Last week the acronyms SOPA and PIPA were unheard of, much less decipherable, by most people.
20Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 15 comments | ContinuedPatently Improper
Whether you agree with the original purpose of patents in America or believe (as I do) that all patents are improper, the America Invents Act is repellent.
27Sep2011 | Wendy McElroy | 28 comments | ContinuedThe Many Monopolies
We libertarians defend economic freedom, not big business. We advocate free markets, not the corporate economy. And what would freed markets look like? Nothing like the controlled markets we have today. But how often do we hear mass unemployment, financial crisis, ecological catastrophe, and the economic status quo attributed to the voraciousness of “unfettered free [...]
24Aug2011 | Charles Johnson | 19 comments | ContinuedSlave Labor and Intellectual Property
If one favors property rights in tangible things, why would one not favor them in intangibles?
3Jun2011 | Sheldon Richman | 119 comments | ContinuedHow Intellectual Property Hampers the Free Market
Advocates of free-market capitalism commonly believe in the legitimacy of intellectual property (IP) because IP rights are thought to be important to a system of private property. But are they? There are good reasons to think that IP is not actually property—that it is actually antithetical to a private-property, free-market order. By intellectual property, I [...]
25May2011 | N. Stephan Kinsella | 56 comments | ContinuedIntellectual Property: Silly or Sinister?
Imagine a land recently seized from a foreign power where there is little law and a lot of gold. Since nature abhors a vacuum, prospectors quickly adopt the conventions of private property: Whoever is first to put four stakes in the ground is the proud owner of the land and any gold beneath. This would [...]
22Dec2010 | David K. Levine | 33 comments | ContinuedOminous Copyright Ruling Stands
A stunning but little-noticed Supreme Court ruling signals that the face of business and the boundaries of ownership could soon change dramatically.
21Dec2010 | Wendy McElroy | 12 comments | ContinuedThis Is Free Trade?
The so-called Republic of Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement has lived down to expectations. Note this excerpt from a report in The Hill: Specifically, the agreement extends intellectual property protections by ensuring copyright holders have the exclusive right to publish their works online. It also bans the hacking of technology used to protect copyrighted work [...]
7Dec2010 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedFashion Design and Copyright
Should fashion designs be eligible for copyrights? When I listen to people talk about this issue, many of the same interesting arguments come up. These people know about designer knockoffs and feel that something is not quite fair about them. Yet they also view copyists as moving innovation along in the fashion world. Copying releases [...]
24Nov2010 | Edward J. López | 10 comments | ContinuedThe Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives
Without private property rights, people have incentives to overuse an asset. Conflicting private property rights, on the other hand, create a “tragedy of the anti-commons” in which resources are underused, according to Michael Heller. In The Gridlock Economy, he treats the reader to a compelling array of examples of the tragedy of the anti-commons in [...]
19Aug2009 | Art Carden | 0 comments | ContinuedBooks Vanishing from Kindles
David Pogue of the New York Times reports: This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid — for thought they owned. But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about [...]
18Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | ContinuedNovelist Gagged by Judge
The U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, two weeks ago issued a preliminary but indefinite injunction against publishing, distributing, or advertising of an “unauthorized sequel” to J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye titled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. The text of the preliminary injunction against Frederik Colting, writing as John [...]
15Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedIP Debate Breaks Out at FEE
At a recent FEE seminar, a debate over intellectual “property” broke out spontaneously among Ivan Pongracic (second from right), Paul Cwik (second from left), and me (left, where I belong). Who won?
15Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedIntellectual “Property” Versus Real Property
Intellectual “property” (IP) is a sleeper issue. It seems uncontroversial: Someone invents or writes something and therefore owns it. What could be plainer? But IP contains the power to destroy liberty. IP isn’t merely about rock bands preventing kids from sharing MP3s over the Internet. (See “Weird Al” Yankovic’s musical commentary, “Don’t Download This Song,” [...]
12Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 9 comments | ContinuedTGIF: Intellectual "Property" Versus Real Property
Intellectual “property” (IP) is a sleeper issue. It seems uncontroversial: Someone invents or writes something and therefore owns it. What could be plainer? But IP contains the power to destroy liberty. The rest of TGIF is here.
12Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedDo Patents Encourage or Hinder Innovation? The Case of the Steam Engine
Today one of the most controversial issues in economic policy is that of patent law. Is a patent just an extension of property rights to the realm of ideas? Or is it an unwarranted interference by the government into the rights of individuals?
1Dec2008 | Michele Boldrin, David K. Levine, and Alessandro Nuvolari | 37 comments | Continued-
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