Private property is an essential aspect of human existence. To own something is to possess the exclusive right to use it and to profit from selling whatever you may produce with it, limited only by consumer and environmental protection regulations. This is the fundamental basis of capitalism. It makes perfect sense that physically tangle things require exclusive ownership rights because such things can only be utilized by one person at a time. No two people can drive the same car or wear the same pair of shoes or eat the same piece of food at the same time. But it does not make sense that intangible things, like technology and artistic content, can or should be private property. Because the ideas in your mind are as much your property as your car and your shoes, and regardless of whether or not you originated them. To give anyone ownership over art and technology is to give them the power to limit our freedom and prosperity by limiting how we may use our knowledge and our physical property. Limiting productivity also limits competition. Poverty, the disparity of wealth and the lack of opportunity for individuals to employ themselves, it all traces back to the exclusive rights of intellectual property trumping our physical property rights. Physical property is the only form of property that requires protection in order to sustain free markets with maximum competition and opportunity.
to hell with that. Why should I devote time and money into developing an idea if I (probably) can't profit from it, due to lack of patent or copyright protection? The patent laws, at the very least, have given us tremendous improvements in our lives, by encouraging inventors and businessmen to move forward with ideas.
It wouldn't matter anyway. IP doesn't make it possible to profit from ideas that are otherwise unprofitable. It only makes it possible to profit exclusively from ideas that would otherwise be profitable to everyone. The real question is, are we really better off in this captive market ruled by IP than we would have been in a free market without it? IP has certainly encouraged a lot of research but more for the aim of patent hoarding than for our quality of life. There are a lot of discoveries and developments that are locked up by patents. Nobody can use them and the patent holder has no immediate plans for them. That's technological stagnation, not progress. Without the threat of patent predation, there is no need for patent protection. Knowledge would be free and technology would progress unfettered.
i"m not throwing away any chance of making some real money and anyone who does is a fool. The things "held back" can be gotten around, and if they are so valuable, they WILL be gotten around. But your way, the little guy has lost one of the major ways that he can improve his life. All you offer in return is untested theories about the "general good". Well, I say to hell with the general good, when it can't be proven to exist (in this context).
A problem arises when things are commoditized that were never meant to be commoditized. Not everything should be sold off and privatized. If some people can't be productive, maybe it's because they are not allowed to utilize the resources that they need to be more productive.
If you enjoy living in an economy where people are miserable and everything is cheap and unreliable and over complicated due to workarounds, fine. Unless you're exceptionally skilled or talented or you have good crony connections, the only chance you'll ever have at making some real money is to inherit it, win the lottery, or sell elicit goods. But if you want to live in a world where everyone is happy and everything works well and lasts a long time, there can be no IP. Everyone must be free to clone any product using the best technology. Equal rights, free enterprise, financial independence- that's what I'm offering.
Agreed. The law should prohibit volume limiting and volume discounting. This would prevent forward favoritism by any natural monopoly along the economic pipeline- raw material producers > refined material producers > part and component manufacturers > finished product manufacturers > retailers > consumers.
