from Glyn Moody at Techdirt: Daft Idea Of The Week: Giving People Copyright In Their Faces. Yet another in a long line in the attempt to expand IP to new areas. Others, as I note in Types of Intellectual Property, include:
- Bartenders Looking For Greater Intellectual Property Protection For Drinks
- Agitation to add IP laws for fashion designs
- the proposal by Hank Barry (in a recent appearance on TWiL), former CEO for Napster and now an IP lawyer, who wants to reform copyright law by adding “a right of community in works of authorship.” As he writes: “So, should an author whose work has generated substantial amounts of money as the object or locus for a community have a right to benefit from those economics, even if the economics are one step removed from the sale of a copy of the work?”
Copyright to facial characteristics may be a stupid idea, but letting people have control over how their personalities are commercially exploited, that is not dumb. Facebook appears to be turning users into unwitting endorsers in their affiliate advertising business and it strikes me that statutory personality rights may be a good way to combat that.
My argument is not that it’s “dumb”. But rather that all forms of IP, including the one you suggest, are unjust. If you have a right in your personality it means you have a right in other people’s property, what they say about you, etc. It’s just not compatible with private property rights and a free society. Rothbard explains this re reputation rights, in his Ethics of Liberty, very well.
You must log in to post a comment. Log in now.