Libertarianism’s Shift Against Intellectual Monopolies
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.
March 11th, 2009 at 1:10 am
[...] Ya rly. For a long time, it was something that I differed from other libertarians on too. It’s only recent that many libertarians have begun taking positions against the current situation on patents and copyrights. You go back about 5 years, and most libertarians were defending copyright and patents as an extension of property rights. I wrote a blog about this a few months back, when I first heard of these professor’s work. Gigs Shrugged » Blog Archive » Libertarianism’s Shift Against Intellectual Monopolies [...]
May 25th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Most countries in the third world never respects intellectual property rights. piracy is so rampant in asian countries.-”;