4 ms·
There is no such thing as private property. It's a fiction enforced with the threat of violence. It's even fairly recent as a concept. If we agree that private
by hnbad 4y ago
There is no such thing as private property. It's a fiction enforced with the threat of violence. It's even fairly recent as a concept.
If we agree that private property should exist, "it's not real" is not a good argument for why intellectual property shouldn't exist. Not all violations of private property have to be stealing. If I sleep in the empty house you own, that is trespass even if I don't cause any physical damage. If I tend to the garden of the summer home you own and eat the fruit that would have spoiled by the time you came by, I still violated your property rights even if I left the garden in a better condition than I found it.
If we abolish intellectual property, why should we keep money, which at this point is entirely virtual? Why should we allow stocks, which represent a partial ownership claim in a legal entity that lays claim on other property? Why should we allow corporations, which are afforded similar rights as real persons but don't physically exist? Why should we allow ownership of land which is unused, homes that aren't lived in, produce that isn't consumed? Why should we allow private property at all?
If you want to abolish private property, I'm all on board with you, but if you think intellectual property is tangibly different you need to take a closer look at how private property came about and what it even means.
- beepbooptheory 4y agoPrivate property !== personal possessions. I, for one, don't agree private property should exist, just like intellectual property. There is no place in the future for such concepts, they all feel quite antiquated.
- anticensor 4y agoWhat about possessionless property rights, that are only utilised to enforce theft and robbery laws?
- alphanullmeric 4y agoAm I physically touching your painting when I copy it? If not, then your attempt at equating physical property to thoughts is nonsense. We both believe in physical property, however arbitrarily invented it is. Only you believe in intellectual property, and I’m willing to bet you aren’t even consistent with it. Should you be fined for saving an NFT? I don’t want the government to be involved in virtual money. Stocks are a claim to physical property, corporations are (or should be) a convenient way to address physical property pooled together from multiple people. The rest of your comment can be addressed with the homestead principle - if I didn’t take it by force you can’t take it from me by force.