[CS-FSLUG] IP: Economics of Abolishing Copyright

[Ed Hurst]

While Economics might be peripheral to the discussion of FOSS or Faith,  
the subject of Intellectual Property is quite central. There is a newly  
published book on the subject (which I can't afford right now): _Against  
Intellectual Monopoly_, by Michele Boldrin and David Levine. There have  
been several reviews of it, but I believe this one presents the case best:

The New Frontier in IP
by Jeffrey A. Tucker
http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker123.html

"This is one reason that this book is so important. And sensing that they  
are taking on more than just the problem of digital downloads, they put  
this ancient history up front. They take the first crack at revisionist  
history with regard to a famous patent.

"They show that most of Watt's energies were spent lobbying for and  
defending a government patent on a technology that was quickly surpassed  
but could not come to market thanks to his rent-seeking behavior. Nor was  
this patent somehow necessary for his economically useful behavior. It  
wasn*t until after the patent expired that steam engine technology really  
took off, but by that time the Industrial Revolution gave up 10-15 years  
of what might have otherwise been economic progress....

"The question is whether creators should have a right to dictate how  
purchasers use a creation. To say they should amounts to a claim not of  
property rights but of 'intellectual property.' It confers a privilege and  
restricts third parties in what they can do with property. It is a grant  
of monopoly privilege. Monopolies are not friends of innovation in any  
area of life."

The reviews I've seen so far don't mention any moral issues. However, they  
all assume without question the basic moral good of sharing things which  
help others. Perhaps we could cast it this way: God gave you a brilliant  
idea. He did not intend for you to hoard it unto yourself, but to bless  
others. My problem with the whole thing is, I don't see a better way of  
keeping someone else from stealing your idea, putting their name on it,  
and using some advantage they have to market it better and make all the  
money from it. Then again, what little creative work I've done was never  
meant for profit. I don't suppose there's any one simple answer for  
applying the arguments to everything it might cover.

-- 
Ed Hurst
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