>>>The (b)Right Libertarian: Copyleft and right

Friday, June 3, 2011

Copyleft and right

Imagine if someone could copyright the idea of automobile, computer, or airplane. Those people would be wealthy beyond dreams, wouldn't they? Well, maybe they would, if they actually did a good job of producing and marketing, then sold their tangible idea (product) to willing customers. The good news is, none of those ideas were actually patented, these were just ideas that were "intellectual," in the mind, like the idea of soup or bread.
Ownership of intellectual property is a disputed issue amongst libertarians. When should someone be accused of theft of intellectual property? In fact is it possible to make such an accusation? Is it possible to own an idea to the exclusion of everyone else?
Do yourself a favour and follow this link to Sheldon Richman's short article called Slave Labour and Intellectual Property, then check the Freeman Online for this longer piece, and all will be revealed and you too can join in the discussion.

2 comments:

AnonymousJune 4, 2011 at 12:43 PM
Hi Allan, I wrote a piece on this issue for submission to the Canadian Copyright EConsultation, perhaps you'd be interested in it as well.

...Unless we make the decision to impose onerous restrictions on the architecture of the Internet itself, [the collapsing price of information as it's divorced from commodities] is a linear one, and in my opinion is an emergent property of our nature as human beings. We move within this symbolic medium of information and culture, it informs and expands our views, and we create more and more of it as time goes by. It has become more of an ecology than an economy, though there are important similarities between these concepts, and similarly to the economy of commodities, we are poorer and less free if these flows are unnaturally restricted....

http://tehowe.blogspot.com/2009/09/cost-copyright-and-embodiment.html
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Allen SmallJune 6, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Thanks Todd the interesting article and viewpoint, here is that link again:
http://tehowe.blogspot.com/2009/09/cost-copyright-and-embodiment.html
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Republic of Canada

The short-lived Republic of Canada is a little-known chapter in Canadian history. From 1837 to 1838 William Lyon Mackenzie and a small group of supporters occupied Navy Island in the Niagara River. The rebels were agitating for a government that was both responsible and representative. Although their struggle was not successful, eventually these ideals came to be represented in the government of Upper Canada and, later, the country of Canada we now know. Liberty was such an important value to this little group that they put the word on the flag, making this short, but important, episode of Canadian history something worth remembering.