Thread: Enjoy the circus, Intellectual Property

To get this thread back on its original topic, I feel compelled to note that nobody arguing in favor of "intellectual property" really addressed my point that for something to be considered property, it needs to be possible to steal it. You can't steal an idea.

That being said, there were practical points brought up in its favor, of which I consider the most compelling to be Alric's point that in the absence of patent law, firms would be compelled to extend their advantage by making it increasingly difficult to figure out how their products work.

However I consider that to be merely a practical point. While I can't think of a good response to it, I don't think that we can allow us to lose sight of the importance of having a clear definition. What exactly is "intellectual property"?

Originally Posted by PhilosopherStoned

To get this thread back on its original topic, I feel compelled to note that nobody arguing in favor of "intellectual property" really addressed my point that for something to be considered property, it needs to be possible to steal it. You can't steal an idea.

That being said, there were practical points brought up in its favor, of which I consider the most compelling to be Alric's point that in the absence of patent law, firms would be compelled to extend their advantage by making it increasingly difficult to figure out how their products work.

However I consider that to be merely a practical point. While I can't think of a good response to it, I don't think that we can allow us to lose sight of the importance of having a clear definition. What exactly is "intellectual property"?

Just in case you missed it, I posted some stuff on IP on the first page:

If you're interested, Stephan Kinsella has written a book called Against Intellectual Property, available here. It's fairly short (73 pages). I needs to get around to reading it some day.

I would like to point out that he looks at IP from a libertarian perspective, so you might have some issues with that.

There's also Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine, available here.