> In the case of intellectual property, it often means a "right to exclude". The right to exclude others from doing something is a property right. in the case

> In the case of intellectual property, it often means a "right to exclude". The right to exclude others from doing something is a property right. in the case of tangible goods, it makes sense because often one person's use precludes another person's use, and each use has a physical effect on the object in question. One person's use of a software doesn't exclude another person from using the same software, so the 'right to exclude' actually means the right to punish someone for using a software or idea. Exclusive use of physical goods makes sense because they are rivalrous. Exclusive use of an idea relies on a complex of relations including a regulatory state with a coercive apparatus. If someone wants to use my house they deprive me of my use of that house to the extent that they use it, and its natural that I would use force to prevent it. In this view, the use of the state coercive apparatus is on my behalf as a person who needs a house but lives in a society that doesn't want houses to belong to anyone strong enough to take them from the (former) owner. If someone wants to use a design that I have created and patented they aren't preventing me from using the design, they are just refusing to pay a license fee for my patent. Essentially treating physical goods like properties that can be owned allows people to use them and predict their availability and incentivizes the creation of more physical goods, allowing intangible goods to be treated like property incentivizes rent-seeking behavior and allows people to collect rents on goods that could be duplicated for little to no cost. It may be more useful to consider how copyright has been shaped by powerful interests to reflect their desires rather than how property rights in physical goods arise naturally from the existence and use of rivalrous/scarce goods.