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Loading... Against Intellectual Propertyby N. Stephan Kinsella
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This audio book from Misses.org was almost unlistenable. The reason for me making such a bold claim is that the reader insisted on reading the footnotes on each page, complelty interrupting the flow of the ideas Kinsella was trying to get across. The data I was able to obtain from it seemed accurate, but nothing really new to me. So I cannot recommend the audiobook, but do recommend the hard copy. no reviews | add a review
LARGE PRINT EDITION! More at LargePrintLiberty.com. This monograph is justifiably considered a modern classic. It is by Stephan Kinsella who caused a worldwide rethinking among libertarians of the very basis of intellectual property. Mises had warned against patents, and Rothbard did too. But Kinsella goes much further to argue that the very existence of patents (including copyrights and trademarks) is contrary to a free market. They all use the state to create artificial scarcities of non-scarce goods and employ coercion in a way that is contrary to property rights and the freedom of contract.Many people who read this essay for the first time are unprepared for the rigor of his argument, which takes time to settle in, simply because it seems so shocking at first. But Kinsella makes his case with powerful logic and examples that are overwhelming in their persuasive power.The relevance in a digital age can't be overstated. The state works with monopolistic private producers to inhibit innovation and stop the progress of technology, while using coercion against possible competitors and against consumers. Even U.S. foreign policy is profoundly affected by widespread confusions over what is legitimate and merely asserted as property. What Kinsella is calling for instead of this cartelizing system is nothing more or less than a pure free market, which he argues would not generate anything resembling what we call intellectual property today. IP, he argues, is really a state-enforced legal convention, not an extension of real ownership.Few essays written in the last decades have caused so much fundamental rethinking. It is essential that libertarians get this issue right and understand the arguments on all sides. Kinsella's piece here is masterful in making a case against IP that turns out to be more rigorous and thorough than any written on the left, right, or anything in between.Read it and prepare to change your mind. No library descriptions found. |
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And besides, how many companies are going to invest money in research if they are not going to make a profit afterwards? Are pharmaceutical companies going to develop new medicines if, after spending a fortune on research, they can not make a profit for that work? How can a movie production company survive if all the people pirate its films and don't pay to see them?
And finally, for me, the subject of intellectual property is a moral issue. Men who dedicate their lives to research and artistic creation need to receive a fair compensation for their work in order to survive. Society, morally, must give them money according with the benefits that their creative ideas are bringing to others. If not, it will be very difficult for them to continue their scientific research and their artistic creations. ( )