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On Leading by Example and the Power of Attraction (Open Source Publishing, Creative Commons, Public Pomain Publishing)

by on April 12, 2025

As everyone knows, I oppose all forms of IP law. I have also endeavored for many years to publish as much as I can free from copyright, at least in my libertarian writing (it has not been possible with my legal books published with mainstream, for-profit publishers),1 although it’s really that easy to get rid of copyright.2

When I submit a chapter for inclusion in a book, the book is often from a for-profit academic publisher. Though they pay the authors nothing, they often charge insane prices for the books and of course employ copyright paywalls. They also often demand the author assign their copyright. I always refuse. Sometimes I resort to tricks to get around this.

For example, a few years back I was asked by my former friend Chris Sciabarra (“former” because he broke with and chastised me and was appalled that I was appalled at the offensive, ridiculous, woke bullshit of including a man in the book (and on the cover of!) The Essential Women of Liberty)3 to contribute a chapter to a book he was putting together, The Dialectics of Liberty. My was “Dialogical Arguments for Libertarian Rights.”4 It was based on a previous article I had written in 1996, “New Rationalist Directions in Libertarian Rights Theory.”5 The “new” chapter updated the previous article and also included some additional material drawn from other work I had written. And it’s now a chapter in my 2023 book Legal Foundations of a Free Society [LFFS]. Well the publisher wanted me to either get permission from the publisher, if it was previously published, or to warrant that it was original and to assign the copyright to them. Well, I still owned the copyright to the original since I never assigned it to the Mises Institute (and would refuse to do so!) so the publisher didn’t need reprint permission from them, but from me but because everyone is half-assed, incompetent, and confused about IP—even publishers—they don’t quite get this.

As an example, my article “Against Intellectual Property,” first published in the JLS in 2001 [pdf], and later republished in 2008 as a monograph by the Mises Institute [pdf], incorrectly state “© 2001 Ludwig von Mises Institute” and “Copyright © 2008 Ludwig von Mises Institute.” This is incorrect since I hold the copyright. I have modified the 2008 file to indicate I hold copyright (as the author who has never assigned it!),6 and have released it under CC0. Of course various insincere ignoramuses who also do not understand copyright (though this doesn’t stop them from barking about it!)7 have given me grief for my “hypocrisy” for “having” a copyright “on” my book…. they are just trolls who know nothings.8

In any case there was no way in hell I was going to assign my copyright in the chapter. After all I might want to reuse and build on or republish my own work—which I did! I’m not going to get permission from some bozos who paid me nothing to re-use my own work! So I first suggested to Chris that instead of checking the box “this is an original piece; here is your copyright assignment” I check the box “it’s previously published” (even though it was revised) and “here’s your permission” (from me and/or the Mises Institute).9

Chris didn’t want that because publishers want their books to have a minimum of repurposed, old material, and mostly new material, so that it sells better. Whatever. Because I refused option A Chris had no choice but to go with option B.

And this keeps happening. For example I was asked to contribute a chapter for David Howden, ed., Palgrave Handbook of Misesian Austrian Economics (Palgrave, forthcoming 2025), part of the Palgrave Studies in Austrian Economics Book series. I wrote a new-ish chapter based on my previous “A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability,”10 but mostly rewritten and with much new material. The publisher is probably going to insist that I assign copyright, or “get permission” from the previous publisher. So, I published it myself, at my imprint, Papinian Press (which I used to published my 2023 book Legal Foundations of a Free Society), as Stephan Kinsella, “The Title-Transfer Theory of Contract,” Papinian Press Working Paper #1 (Sep. 7, 2024), so that “Papinian Press” can satisfy Palgrave and I don’t have to assign the copyright. I’m doing something similar with another chapter in progress, “The Problem with Intellectual Property,” in Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics, 2nd ed., Christoph Lütge & Marianne Thejls Ziegler, eds. (Springer, forthcoming 2025; Robert McGee, section ed.). No way in hell will I assign copyright to these people. They can have my work for free but copyright assignment from me, nosirree. And if my stubbornness leads them to ultimately refuse to publish my work, I don’t care, I can publish it myself. I don’t need tenure or prestige.

In any case this is a long way to say that I publish everything possible open-source, either CC0 or CC-BY, which is practically the same. On stephankinsella.com, for example, the footer provides

© 2012-2025 StephanKinsella.comCC0To the extent possible under law, Stephan Kinsella has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to material on this Site, unless indicated otherwise. In the event the CC0 license is unenforceable a  Creative Commons LicenseCreative Commons Attribution 3.0 License is hereby granted.

And I also routinely warn other libertarian authors about this and recommend they do something similar to make their work accessible to people.11 I am encouraging my friend George Reisman to open up his work upon his death, for example. And in my eulogy for my friend Tibor Machan,12 I wrote:

Set Your Work Free

On a related matter—it’s a shame more of Tibor’s large corpus of writing is not more readily available online. Gillespie’s Reason memoriam notes, “To read Tibor Machan’s Reason archive, including interviews with figures ranging from Nathaniel Branden to Thomas Szasz to William F. Buckley, go here. Many of his articles are from issues that are not currently available online but we are updating his archive to remedy that.” But once this is done, this would still only constitute a rather small selection of Tibor’s more popular-format writing. It may be decades before many of his scholarly works and books are more accessible.

There should be inexpensive paper copies of all Tibor’s books and free or dirt-cheap online versions like PDF, kindle, and epub easily available and searchable. This is true of a lot of academics, especially of older generations, who are often very prolific but not too worried about the details of the publication process. They sign away their copyrights, or leave the status vague and murky, or don’t insist on reversion of rights or cheaper versions for intelligent laymen or students. This can lead to books with academic pricing that are too expensive for many people too afford, out of print books, no electronic versions, and orphan works problems and difficulty obtaining permissions from heirs or legatees after death. For example, I can find no online copies of Human Rights and Human Liberties or Individuals and Their Rights, although, luckily, there are affordable paper versions on Amazon. His virtually unheard of 2004 memoir, The Man Without a Hobby: Adventures of a Gregarious Egoist, is available only in paper and costs $88 at present. And who knows who even owns the copyrights to these and other works? (Even the festschrift put together in his honor for his 70th birthday, Reality, Reason, and Rights: Essays in Honor of Tibor R. Machan (by former Reason Papers editor Aeon Skoble, Douglas Rasmussen, and Douglas J. Den Uyl), is available only in crazy prices for  print and kindle editions.)

I talked to Tibor about this a few times over the years—encouraging him to publish future works under Creative Commons licenses or to have a reversion clause or to free up his works in his will, but he didn’t seem to think it was that important. My hope is that his heirs or legatees—presumably his children—will grant whatever permissions they can, as the need arises, to liberate Tibor’s words.

Also, because I’ve gotten burned many times by linkrot and 404 errors, I know almost always post a copy of anything I publish externally on my own sites, and when I cite an important web page or online article or reference, I also create a permalink.13

One reason I open up all my work is that I really do believe in the ideas underlying my opposition to patent and copyright. IP is unjust as a law and the hostility to copying, using, competing, is based on a misunderstanding of the separate roles of scarce means and knowledge in action. For successful action—for any action—the actor must two equally important things available: causally efficacious means (material resources, scarce resources, conflictable resources)14 and knowledge that guides the action—knowledge of laws of causation, knowledge of the contingent facts of the world, even knowledge of his own desires and ends. Property rights apply to the conflictable resources, since by their nature they cannot be used by multiple actors at the same time and the attempt to do so results in conflict and clashing, but not to knowledge, which any number of people can use at any time to guide their behavior and actions.15 The accumulation of knowledge over the centuries—Hayek’s “fund of experience”—is in fact why the present generation is wealthier than our ancestors.16 It is not only unjust to use the law to treat knowledge and ideas like property, it is also futile and wrong. Especially when the main purpose of writing and so on is to develop, communicate, and help spread the ideas of liberty.

I also do not delude myself that I am going to get rich writing, or that money is the main goal (or, for me, a goal at all—I don’t want to work for minimum wage!).

In any case, these are some of the reasons I open up my work when I can. It also helps to lead by example and to show that it’s possible and that there is nothing to be afraid of when opening up one’s work and deviating from the common practice of restricting access, using paywalls, and so on. Leonard Read was right about the power of attraction and of setting an example.17 And, in my case, of preempting tedious arguments of hypocrisy. (For a more humorous case of putting my money where my mouth is, see “Oh yeah? How would like it if I copy and publish your book under my name?!”: On IP Hypocrisy and Calling the Smartasses’ Bluffs and Russell Madden’s “The Death Throes of Pro-IP Libertarianism”. I also take a bit of pleasure in responding to the inevitable bad-faith claim that the only reason I oppose IP is that I’m not “a creator” like inventors so “don’t care” about innovation, and so on; I respond that I’ve helped many high-tech companies acquire hundreds of patents on their inventions, and also that I have been a named inventor on various patent applications. Then they usually change the subject and move on to their next dishonest point before they run out and repeat the cycle.)

Case in point were some tweets noticing that my writing, including my recent book Legal Foundations of a Free Society, is published open source, and with CC0 and, in particular, in response to a tweet about this post of mine: Legal Foundations of a Free Society: Core Chapters—Theory. I include some of the tweets below (with translations from X):

[The abridged version is also available in PDF under a free CC0! license (similar to the public domain). I think this is the first time I’ve seen it in a work of this caliber, and from a leading IP authority, it’s even more valuable.
Stephan suggests translating it into Spanish.]

[I’ve attached the page with the credits. @NSKinsella has long argued very consistently against intellectual property from a libertarian perspective.
This is truly leading by example. And the path for other authors who oppose copyright.]

And, by the way, regarding the possibility of doing a Spanish translation of my book as mentioned in Legal Foundations of a Free Society: Core Chapters—Theory, no one needs my permission to do it or has to pay me royalties. In fact my open publishing model may be one reason my work has so far been translated—most of it without asking me! thank you!—into 17 languages…

  1. See Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary; Oxford University Press, Oceana, Thomson Reuters Books; International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide; also New Publisher, Co-Editor for my Legal Treatise, and how I got started with legal publishing; KOL455 | Haman Nature Hn 109: Philosophy, Rights, Libertarian and Legal Careers. [↩]
  2. “Copyright is very sticky!”; “Let’s Make Copyright Opt-OUT.” [↩]
  3. See my post Facebook Post on Essential Women of Liberty Book; my facebook post; and Sciabarra’s post. [↩]
  4. Roger Bissell, Chris Sciabarra, and Ed Younkins, eds., The Dialectics of Liberty (Lexington Books, 2019). [↩]
  5. Journal of Libertarian Studies 12:2 (Fall 1996). [↩]
  6. The publisher does not need me to assign it to publish it; by submitting it I implicitly give them permission—license—to publish it, but that doens’t transfer the rights to them. [↩]
  7. Violating Rothard’s law: “It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.” See It is no crime to be ignorant about IP… [↩]
  8. Are anti-IP patent attorneys hypocrites? [↩]
  9. The relevant language in the publication agreement:

    Lexington Books
    An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield

    CONSENT TO PUBLISH AGREEMENT
    FOR CONTRIBUTORS TO EDITED VOLUMES

    I understand that my chapter “Dialogical Arguments for Libertarian Rights” will be published in the book entitled The Dialectics of Liberty: Exploring the Context of Human Freedom to be published by LEXINGTON BOOKS. I understand that I will receive one free copy of the book from the Publisher and may order additional copies at a 50 percent discount from the list price. I may purchase other titles on the Publisher’s list at a discount of 25 percent discount from the retail price.

    …

    Choose A or B

    [__] A. I certify that my chapter has never been previously published or copyrighted in any form. My chapter is not a revised or updated version of an already published journal article or book chapter and my chapter is not already under contract with another publisher. I hereby assign copyright to Lexington Books.

    …

    [__] B. My chapter has been previously published in (or is already under contract to be published in the future in) Journal of Libertarian Studies, 1996. Permission has been obtained to reprint this chapter in the above-mentioned Lexington book. A copy of that permission is attached (permission must be obtained to republish any material that has been previously published or is under contract to be published, even if you are only using part of it or have revised and updated it). [↩]

  10. Chapter 9 of LFFS. [↩]
  11.  Kinsella, Authors: Don’t Make the Buddy Holly Mistake and Jeffrey A. Tucker,  Authors: Beware of Copyright (also on LewRockwell.com and in his Bourbon for Breakfast) (( Along with related chapters: “”If You Believe in IP, How Do You Teach Others?”, “Is Intellectual Property the Key to Success?”, “Books, Online and Off,” and “Mises.org in the Context of Publishing History.” See others in Tucker, Ideas, Free and Unfree: A Book Commentary. See also Do Business Without Intellectual Property (Liberty.me, 2014). [↩]
  12. Remembering Tibor Machan, Libertarian Mentor and Friend: Reflections on a Giant.  [↩]
  13. Though fascist copyright law is a threat to even that. See Grok. [↩]
  14. “On Conflictability and Conflictable Resources.” [↩]
  15. See “Against Intellectual Property After Twenty Years: Looking Back and Looking Forward,” in LFFS, Part IV.E. [↩]
  16.   “Against Intellectual Property After Twenty Years, at n.59 as well as “Goods, Scarce and Nonscarce,” also in LFFS, at n.24. [↩]
  17. See “Nock and Leonard Read on “One Improved Unit” and the Power of Attraction“; also Activism, Achieving a Free Society, and Writing for the Remnant. It’s one reason Milton Friedman urged the US to act as a beacon of liberty and demonstrate its commitment to free trade policies by unilaterally abolishing all import tariffs, something much in the news of law, what with Trump’s chaotic trade wars. [↩]
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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.

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