Mickey protected!

[John K. Taber]

Michael Perelman wrote:
> 
> I believe that intellectual property rights are one of the key defenses left
> against the ravages of competition.  I have been trying to push this idea
> [without much success] over on pen-l.
> 
> Perhaps we can spur some discussion about this subject on LBO.

Your contention agrees with what I read in David Noble's _America by
Design_. Has anybody read that besides me?

I think he thinks competition is good. He argued that patent was the 
legal underpinning of monopoly, which would otherwise be without legal 
defense.

In his time, "intellectual property" was an uninvented term, and he 
did not treat copyrights as I remember.

I sure hope you get this discussion going.

-- 
I've been able to string more words into fewer ideas than anybody I
know, and I'm continuing to do that.

     - Alan Greenspan to the Senate Budget Committee, Sept 23, 1998