Libertarianism’s Shift Against Intellectual Monopolies
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
I’ve been a libertarian for a while. Mostly small L, but the party guys don’t bother me too much, even if I do think they are a little extreme. It used to be the case that libertarians would tend to defend the idea of “intellectual property rights”, after all, something with “property rights” in its name surely is something worthy of libertarian defense.
In recent years though, it seems there has been a shift. Increasingly, libertarians are recognizing that “intellectual property” is largely government tinkering with the free market, similar to price controls or anti-gouging laws. It’s not a clear cut case either way, however. Creative output is the fruit of someone’s labor, after all.
I noticed this shift a while back, and it seems that others have too. Today I got the Mises Daily email, and it included a book review for “Against Intellectual Property” by David K. Levine and Michele Boldrin. Being good capitalists, mises.org themselves are offering the book for sale. I have not yet read the book, but its existance in the bookstore of mises.org is a strong sign of the times: “Intellectual Property” has lost yet another former ally.
I once registered a domain… pdlibrary.com. I had planned to make it a repository of public domain documents. That never happened, and I think some domain squatter has the name now, as I let it expire. Thankfully, these people have picked up where I dropped the ball, and have posted things like Fire, Plumbing, and Electrical codes. No need to pay $75 for the NEC 2008, just download it here. The courts have found that the law can’t be copyrighted, as it should be. We shouldn’t have to pay to know the laws we are legally obligated to follow.