The topic of intellectual property (IP) is a difficult one, a point that requires serious thought to understand in its fullness. It’s become the subject of debate with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). The products of LLM (large language model) are not subject to copyright control and this is by design: open sourcing is a precondition for wide distribution and acceptance. Indeed, most of the top entrepreneurs working on AI have spoken out against intellectual property and even called for its abolition.
Of course IP is a threat to AI;2 it’s a threat to human life in general.3[continue reading…]
The Patent Holocaust; Because of her error, Ayn Rand chose IP over real property rights, she chose death over life; The Death Throes of Pro-IP Libertarianism (“It is obscene to undermine the glorious operation of the market in producing wealth and abundance by imposing artificial scarcity on human knowledge and learning (see “IP and Artificial Scarcity“). Learning, emulation, and information are good. It is good that information can be reproduced, retained, spread, and taught and learned and communicated so easily. Granted, we cannot say that it is bad that the world of physical resources is one of scarcity — this is the way reality is, after all — but it is certainly a challenge, and it makes life a struggle. It is suicidal and foolish to try to hamper one of our most important tools — learning, emulation, knowledge — by imposing scarcity on it. Intellectual property is theft. Intellectual property is statism. Intellectual property is death. Give us intellectual freedom instead!” Patents are death. Patents are slavery. See Roderick Long: Owning Ideas Means Owning People; The Libertarian Case Against Intellectual Property Rights). [↩]
I’ve pointed out before how many allegedly free market groups are pro-patent (and pro-IP in general), e.g. the Federalist Society, Cato, Independent Institute, and others.1 As I wrote previously,
I’ve learned from reliable sources connected with various free market think tanks around the world that various important companies, in particular pharmaceutical, have become “supporters” of such think tanks–provided, of course, that the think tank supports intellectual property rights. Could this be one reason many free market think tanks are supportive of IP despite a mounting case against it?
I wonder if this is one reason for some of Cato’s pro-patent positions.2
A friend suggested Reason is also influenced by pharmaceutical donors, send me a Grok report that says [continue reading…]
Nozick was bad on IP: he was confused and weakly in favor of some form of patent law; very diletanttish reasoning, as often is the case for Nozick. See William Fisher, “Theories of Intellectual Property” (2), in Stephen Munzer, ed., New Essays in the Legal and Political Theory of Property (Cambridge University Press, 2001), text at n.5. Also Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1974), p. 182: “independent inventors, upon whom the burden of proving independent discovery may rest, should not be excluded from utilizing their own invention as they wish (including selling it to others).” On Nozick’s dilettantism and “razzle-dazzle,” see Kinsella, Afterword to Hoppe’s The Great Fiction, Second Expanded Edition, and Hoppe, Murray N. Rothbard and the Ethics of Liberty. [continue reading…]
Abstract: We propose a permissionless patronage protocol. A publisher shares a work and a public address. A subscriber contributes to the publisher through a distributor. The contribution is recorded and can be verified in a trust-minimized way. The cost for both the subscriber and the publisher to switch between distributors is zero.
The clash between Malikie Innovations and Bitcoin miners exemplifies a classic conflict between open innovation and legacy fiat intellectual property rights.
From Patently-O. Typical. The state protects its contractors from patent infringement liability and its only liability is to pay compensation. It cannot be enjoined. See 28 U.S. Code § 1498. Of course the whole thing makes no sense: the FedGov grants patents to applicants; this impedes innovation and drives up prices for consumers; and if the patentee sues the FedGov it harms the taxpayers again by printing money and giving it to the patentee.
The War Industry (formerly Defense) heavily invests in new technology and patents. But, we see very few patent infringement lawsuits. A key reason is 28 U.S.C. § 1498. That statute channels patent infringement claims involving government-authorized work away from private defendants and into the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, with the United States as the sole defendant (and a reasonable royalty as the only remedy). For government contractors and subcontractors, § 1498 operates as a powerful shield: if the infringing activity was performed “for the Government” and “with the authorization or consent of the Government,” the patent holder’s only remedy is a compensation action against the United States. The contractor walks free. This design reflects a deliberate policy choice. The government pays heavily for technology development with taxpayer dollars and, in exchange, retains control as the key point person – and it allows the administration to resolve patent disputes as it sees fit.
Of course, not online. I would say ironically, but unforunately it’s not ironic anymore; it’s routine and pathetic: a paper by a patent skeptic reviewing the work of an IP promoter, but paywalled and hidden away due to copyright. Copyright is censorship at work–and preventing the spread of criticism of copyright and patent! Grok’s summary: [continue reading…]
See Marcus Willaschek, “‘This Is Mine’: On Intellectual and Other Property,” in Kant: A Revolution in Thinking, Peter Lewis, trans. (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2025) (sample; Scribd).
Note the opening quote to ch. 12: “The value of money is . . . only indirect. One cannot enjoy money itself or make immediate use of it in any way. Yet it is still a means which, among all things, has the greatest usefulness.”1[continue reading…]
[“In the case of Kant’s principal work, the Critique of Pure Reason, following the common practice in the literature on Kant, references are given in the form “A . . . ,” “B . . . ,” and “A . . . / B . . .” (e.g., A xii; B406; A365/B390). Here, “A” refers to the page numbers of the first edition of the Critique, published in 1781, while “B” references the second edition, of 1787.”] Ak. 6:287, The Metaphysics of Morals (1797), in Kant, Practical Philosophy, ed. and trans. Mary J. Gregor, CWK [The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant in Translation, 16 vols., Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, general eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992–2016)] (1996), 435. [↩]
The Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (C4SIF) is dedicated to building public awareness of the manner in which so-called “intellectual property” (IP) laws and policies impede innovation, creativity, communication, learning, knowledge, emulation, and information sharing. We are for property rights, free markets, competition, commerce, cooperation, and the voluntary sharing of knowledge, and oppose IP laws, which systematically impede or hamper innovation. IP law should be completely and immediately abolished.
We provide news commentary and analysis and scholarly resources from our unique pro-property, pro-market, pro-innovation perspective.
Follow Us!