> All property rights are government created monopolies. It's true that governments attempt to ensure property rights in other things. But tangible goods have

> All property rights are government created monopolies. It's true that governments attempt to ensure property rights in other things. But tangible goods have a natural scarcity, while scarcity is imposed on digitial copies. My use of a plow excludes your simultaneously use of the plow. My use of an mp3 does not. Government steps in and limits the technology artificially, creating an artificial scarcity, not unlike a "club good": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_good The fact that widgets are "rivalrous" is exactly why they're poor candidates for such schemes. But the way we sell "widgets" isn't the ideal way to provide all things. The way we sell widgets wouldn't be a good way to sell street lighting or national defense, however, because those goods are "non-excludable," meaning you get free rider problems. So we have different systems for different goods based on the properties of those goods. Ocean going vessels don't shop for lighthouses at a corner store, and we don't have a municipal fund set aside to supply every child with popsicles. My humble suggestion is that we treat digital content more like other non-rivalrous goods, and less like popsicles. > Compulsory licensing was a tactic... Compulsory licensing arose in many different domains for different reasons. Radio, live performances, cover bands all have somewhat unique histories that defy one simple damning motive. Regardless of past motives, I'm happy to agree that compulsory licensing wouldn't be a good scheme if its only benefit was to move profits from one group to another. It improves efficiency more broadly though. There are several reasons, but for one, consider the transaction costs to any negotiation with any content holder. If society can just have that negotiation once, publicly, it will save everyone a lot of hassle. It also cleanly addresses the holdout problem, I find that a major perk.