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I don't think "Intellectual Property" is like physical property at all, but that's a whole other discussion. I believe copyrights have seen (been pushed by lobb
by nextparadigms 15y ago
I don't think "Intellectual Property" is like physical property at all, but that's a whole other discussion. I believe copyrights have seen (been pushed by lobbyists) as property rights only in the past few decades.
- AndyNemmity 15y agoI'm not arguing for or against it, I am only clarifying there's nothing surprising as it's consistent with their beliefs as I understand them.
- tzs 15y agoThat's not correct. IP has been viewed as a property right for approximately 200 years. It goes back to classical libertarian theories of property, and how a person has a natural right to the fruits of his labor. Well, that's in the US, where our legal philosophy was strongly influenced by Locke. In Europe, their intellectual property philosophy was more shaped by Hegel, and the idea that the creations of your mind are an extension of your personality, and so for someone to use your creations without permission would be a violation of your personalty. Those who prefer to analyze from an economic viewpoint rather than a philosophical viewpoint also have long considered IP a form of property--because that's the whole point of IP economically in a free market system. For a free market to work with a good, that good needs to have certain attributes. Goods that are non-rivalrous and non-excludible, like intellectual goods, do not work with a free market. In order to try to make the free market work to determine the allocation of resources to production of intellectual goods, we use the law to artificially give intellectual goods those aspects of real property that free markets need.