I copy here some thoughts I posted on two linked threads by Jeffrey Tucker and Stephan Kinsella in November regarding problems with intellectual property, as well as some relevant parts of the comment thread by Stephan and others:
My own view has come around to the idea that state-created IP is abusive and has been hijacked by rent-seeking. Firms and individuals that want to maintain information as property should do so without state grants, other than the use of courts in providing remedies for theft.
But that the idea of IP itself as "property" does not seem absurd to me in the least; the prevalence of the idea is an example of the way that communities adopt and internalize rules and apply them rather reflexively (and feel them morally) and is a testament to the capacity of humans to minimize tragedy of the commons situations (as Yandle and Ostrom have noted). The problem is simply that IP has slipped its moorings and become abusive to the point that we need to start working (via legislation, no?) to lessen the evident parasitism and abuse.
Published: November 19, 2009 7:57 AM
Stephan Kinsella:
TokyoTizzom:
These comments have an odd air to them--state created IP is "abusive"? It's been "hijacked"? Libertarians talk about just and unjust, rights and rights violations. And IP was not hijacked by the state any more than taxing power or regulation of wage and working hour or outlawing cocaine was hijacked by the state. It's not as if these things would occur in a free market.
Yes, let's just work with the state to decree more unjust fake "laws" .... that'll work.
Published: November 19, 2009 9:36 AM
TT:
"And IP was not hijacked by the state any more than taxing power or regulation of wage and working hour or outlawing cocaine was hijacked by the state. It's not as if these things would occur in a free market."
I'm not sure why you want to drum up disagreements; is it because I agree with you as a practical matter, rather than delving into principle? If we change anything here, it will not be so much as a result of principle as getting others, as a practical matter, to agree that IP has gotten out of hand.
In any event, I was referring to abuse by rent-seekers, not by the state.
Further, while I don't see how we can possibly conclude that communities cannot, without use of a state, derive the equivalent of taxes, wage regulations or outlawing cocaine, how is this even relevant to a discussion of the legitimacy of IP?
Care to clarify the following?
me: "The problem is simply that IP has slipped its moorings and become abusive to the point that we need to start working (via legislation, no?) to lessen the evident parasitism and abuse."
You: "Yes, let's just work with the state to decree more unjust fake "laws" .... that'll work."
I'm not following you - what is YOUR proposed course of action for rolling back IP? Are you expecting everyone to simply ignore the state and IP laws? Seriously, I'm missing something.
Tizzy Tom
Published: November 20, 2009 2:06 AM
TT:
It seems to me that Stephan - as most libertarians who focus on principles - fails to ground his fine edifice on or link it into what we understand of the continual saga of competition and cooperation in Nature for acquiring, using and protecting scarce resources, and man's ascendant path.
Basically, "property" is simply the name we give to the resources that we are able personally to protect, as well as those which - via sophisticated shared mechanisms that continue to be developed within communities over time - we can protect, plus our recognized share of common assets.
In a state of nature, very little is secure, as most life forms have limited means of securing or maintaining exclusive control over assets. What one predator catches, another often soon steals. Different species have developed different ways of coping with the ongoing struggle, utilizing varying degrees of cunning, speed, strength and cooperation.
Humans have triumphed over the rest of nature because we have found sophisticated ways of balancing individual initiative and moderating intra-group struggle with cooperation, and devised methods to acquire, use and defend resources.
Property has been a key tool, but we can readily see that our "property" has its roots in the ways that our cousin creatures invest energy in marking out territory, fighting (individually or in groups) to protect their young, and growling over bones. At the same time, we can see that animals treat each other as dinner, make calculated decisions as to when to "steal" resources that others are guarding, and as well find advantage in cooperating, both with relatives of their kind and with others.
Our need to defend property from other groups has fed our inbred mutual suspicions of "others", and our ongoing battles, both for dominance within groups and to acquire the resources held by rival groups, - and has led directly to states.
Bruce Yandle has addressed the ascendance of man through methods such as property to facilitate cooperation and to abate ruinous conflicts over resources; he has an interesting short piece I've excerpted here: http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2009/11/20/bruce-yandle-on-the-tragedy-of-the-commons-the-evolution-of-cooperation-and-property.aspx
To tie this in more closely with Stephan's battle with libertarians and others over IP, I note I have further discussed the ways that groups have, in order to strengthen group cohesion and dampen conflict, of developing and inculcating mores; formal religions are obviously just one branch of this tree:
- see my discussion with "fundamentalist" here: http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2009/08/30/a-few-simple-thoughts-on-the-evolution-of-moral-codes-and-why-we-fight-over-them-and-religion-liberty-and-the-state.aspx
- and my discussions with Gene Callahan and Bob Murphy on whether there are "objective" moral truths, or simply a felt need on their part to find some: http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=callahan+moral
These are relevant because they explore not property per se, but our related need to make our property rules stick, by tying them to "sacred postulates" of one kind or another. The problem with this, of course, is that it makes us difficult to abandon what we all pretty much assumed was sacred, like IP. (Of course it also makes even discussing property quite difficult at times.)
TT
Published: November 20, 2009 9:13 AM