Cheers, ken Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
----- Original Message ----- From: michael perelman <michael.perelman3 at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Cc: Sent: Wednesday, August 8, 2012 11:09:27 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Intellectual property rights, free trade, and free markets
That was the story of my book, Steal this Idea. Early libertarians were firm opponents of patents as monopoly rights.
In reality, intellectual property is incompatible with so-called free markets. To grant intellectual property rights is to violate free-market ideology with a monopoly. To not grant it, threatens to erase profits from the creation of new technology or culture.
The problem is not patents, but capitalism.
On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 8:52 AM, ken hanly <northsunm at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have often been been puzzled by the fact that most defenders of capitalism and free markets are also firm defenders of Intellectual Property rights. These rights ensure that companies and authors have monopolies and run counter to the spread of ideas and competition among companies in free markets. The whole idea is to prevent competition.
> Free trade agreements are less about free trade than intellectual property rights. To join the WTO a country must as a condition agree to TRIPS which protects intellectual property rights. Some libertarians seem to realize the contradiction involved. Do leftist economists have much to say about this?
> The enclosed video with libertarian Stephan Kinsella argues that IP rights are incompatible with free market capitalism. Although much of this is somewhat nauseating there are also some bright spots. Kinsella points out that patents derive from letters patent granting certain rights issued by a monarch usually. Some of the first letters patent were given to pirates such as Francis Drake that allowed him and others to plunder Spanish ships and share in the loot with the monarch. Ironically modern protections of patent and copyright laws are called anti-piracy laws. Kinsella points out too that copyright arose as a form of censorship. However perhaps it is just a case of again legalizing "good pirates" to take back exclusive control of what should belong to everyone.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWShFz4d2RY&feature=player_embedded
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> Cheers, ken
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> Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html
> Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
>
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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