Against intellectual property
by N. Stephan Kinsella · first published 2001
33mentions
20recommended by
24HN commenters
2008–2026first – last mentioned
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, free libertarian case for abolishing patents and copyright, arguing IP is a state-granted monopoly that conflicts with property rights in scarce goods. Suits readers wanting a rigorous anti-IP argument.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…something of an oxymoron. More properly, it is a government enforced monopoly on particular ideas -- not property at all. For much more about Austrian views on intellectual property, take a look at Against Intellectual Property by Stephan Kinsella.
on “Witness the Freest Economy: the Internet” ↗…give you two sources. The first, "Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy?" by Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite chronicles the harm brought by IP with real world examples. The second, "Against Intellectual Property" by Stephan Kinsella is a philosophical/libertarian argument. (The authors of Information Feudalism don't think IP should be abolished, so you may find it more credible.)
on “The Two Teenagers Who Run the Popular Twitter Feed @HistoryInPics” ↗…with Physical Property rights. True to form, his book is available for free in digital formats: http://mises.org/resources/3582/Against-Intellectual-Propert... And audio: http://blog.mises.org/11717/against-intellectual-property-au... EDIT: clarified that Kinsella is a lawyer and knows this subject well
on “What everyone in the SOPA debate is missing: IP is not a fundamental right” ↗…control conflicts when multiple people want to access rivalrous goods. Intellectual property is a collection of disparate concepts, but if we take copyright, there's no similar justification for it. See Against Intellectual Property, by Stephan Kinsella: http://mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf
on “Dear Spike Lee” ↗…fundamental concept of intellectual property to be the application of a body of law to the ownership of ideas. This body of law must be enforced by some coercive third party. (I defer to Stephan Kinsella's "Against Intellectual Property" - http://mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf - for an explanation of why that is.) Property rights over tangible things (whose use is physically exclusionary) do not require the defense of a coercive…
on “Against Intellectual Property (1995)” ↗…market, because it mandates that someone prevents you from using your own resources as you see fit (namely, copying a DVD you own on a computer you own, using electricity you're paying for). Kinsella's "Against Intellectual Property" is probably the best resource point out the contradiction between Imaginary Property and the free market.
on “Disney+ streaming uses draconian DRM” ↗Perhaps you'd like to read Against Intellectual Property by the attorney Stephan Kinsella. https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-0
on “Technical reasons to choose FreeBSD over GNU/Linux” ↗…that occurs with physical property because of scarcity. But it does not occur naturally with ideas. The only way it happens with ideas is if scarcity is created artificially, e.g., by a state. I'd say "Against Intellectual Property" by Stephan Kinsella is a good deeper dive on this. But some may find it unorthodox.
on “Software licensing and my opposition to copyleft” ↗You might be interested in reading Stephan Kinsella's Against Intellectual Property [0] for the libertarian take on the matter. https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-0
on “Online Antipiracy firm sending copyright notices for downloading Ubuntu ISO” ↗…by everyone involved, including those who allegedly own a share of ownership in the company. > even "intellectual property" of patents and copyrights My position here is very adequately described by "Against Intellectual Property", by Stephan Kinsella https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-0 > But just what does it mean that I "own" 999 houses, and see no lessening of my ability to evict people ACTUALLY living…
on “What the world will be like in a hundred years (1922)” ↗Stephan Kinsella makes a pretty compelling argument that's hard to refute: http://blog.mises.org/11717/against-intellectual-property-au... Just because someone beat me to the patent office legally means I'm not permitted think up the same idea and use my computer to do the same. It's not even about copying, I'm legally limited in…
…backwards, primitive fucks. Anyhow, among hardcore libertarian circles there is actually pretty wide agreement these days that IP laws are unjust. The work you want to look at for the sea change is Kinsella's Against Intellectual Property free online here: http://mises.org/document/3582
on “What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014” ↗If anyone disagress with coldpie, I'd recommend reading "Against Intellectual Property" by Stephan Kinsella. I used to be in favor of IP laws until I read that book.
on “Is the Supreme Court about to rule software ineligible for patent protection?” ↗By the way, you can do business without IP... I recommend the following book: Against Intellectual Property by Stephan Kinsella. https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-0
on “A Government Guide to Keeping Insulin Unaffordable” ↗Stephen Kinsella makes a great case for doing away with all intellectual property laws in Against Intellectual Property. https://mises.org/library/against-intellectual-property-0
on “Google and Oracle's decade-long copyright battle reaches Supreme Court” ↗