Dr. Ed Lopez (an Austrian style economist) is giving a lecture at my university tomorrow about Intellectual Property rights. Does anyone have any ideas for some good questions I could ask him?
Never heard of him. What school?
He's from San Jose State University. He received his Ph.D. from George Mason. Here's his personal web page:
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/lopez/
And my school (where he will be speaking tomorrow) is Penn State University.
Tell us about anything noteworthy that happens.
Dr. Edward J. Lopez: The Economist great "outside" view of American conditions and world events, some by subscription only
The Economist great "outside" view of American conditions and world events, some by subscription only
You said he's an Austrian style economist?
Although on the other hand he had a link to libertyfund on his page as well
The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community.
He had a real interesting lecture, then he joined a few of us for ice cream afterwards. He's very much a libertarian. The lecture was in defense of abolishing all copyright laws for the fashion industry. Basically, a "high end" company makes a product that's very expensive, and rich people buy it for the status it confers. Then competitors copy it and sell it at a much lower price, and the product is accessible to people with lower incomes. Then these high end companies are forced to come up with a new expensive product. So basically, the deregulation of the market encourages innovation, as the luxury market is cyclical, and driven by copying. Pretty interesting.