I heard the claim recently that to use an idea that originated with someone else is to commit a trespass. This begs the question and assumes what proponents of strong intellectual property rights are trying to prove.
Tag: rights
A Crippling Lack of Imagination and Problem Solving
Here’s one of those (thankfully, rare) long reply posts. Someone had a problem with me not liking socialism/government and responded with a request for answers. So I did what I could.
Police State
“Repressive” is in the eye of the beholder. It feels repressive to me, but for someone who is free to listen to rap, watch sports, v*te, and eat Cheetos, and that’s all they want to do, it probably doesn’t feel repressive. Sure, it could be worse, but it could be a lot better.
On Intellectual Property III
The private property convention is meant to reduce conflict over naturally scarce resources. When something is made artificially scarce by government fiat, say when ideas are monopolizable (copyright and patent), it is as if a wrench is thrown into the works of a machine.
You Can’t Have “Open Borders” without “Borders”
I don’t advocate for “open borders” because I don’t believe government borders have the tiniest bit of legitimacy. I only believe in lines marking the boundaries of private property. Those are the only real borders. Sometimes those coincide with fictional government “borders” and sometimes they don’t.
On Politics IV
The United States Federal Government currently threatens imprisonment for many behaviors it has deemed criminal but which do not have as a result the violation of any other person’s self-ownership or property rights (ie. victimless).
Wilson and The State Police
“Wilson” never had a driver’s license in all the years I knew him. He normally traveled by bicycle. He wasn’t usually in a hurry and it was cheaper than buying fuel. Especially at our local prices. When he needed to carry a load or make a longer trip he drove his old full-sized van. He avoided being pulled over because he wasn’t a reckless or impulsive driver. But one day his luck ran out when he was a few miles outside of town.
Intellectual Property & Stealing Future Profits (30m) – Editor’s Break 115
Editor’s Break 115 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: resources and scarcity; the purpose of property rights; ideas as patterns of information; the attempt to apply property rights to non-scarce ideas in the forms of copyright and patent; why intellectual property makes everyone a thief; how intellectual property rights necessarily violate material property rights; the argument that copying ideas is to steal future profits; and more.
Gassing Migrants
The Trump administration and its apologists are quick to point out that Barack Obama was as willing as Donald Trump himself to tear-gas desperate people trying to protect themselves by crossing America’s southern border. So he was, though many will refuse to believe it. But that raises an interesting question: if every horrible thing Trump has done so far was also done by Obama, why do Trump and his fans hate the former White House occupant so much?
Cesspools of Collectivism
Racists and nationalists are among the greatest enemies of people who favor a society of free and responsible individuals, a society in which all persons are seen as equal claimants of natural rights and equally entitled to respect for their human dignity.