Ron and Ed recently welcomed patent attorney and advocate for abolishing intellectual property, Stephan Kinsella to the show. We explored what is (and is not) intellectual property and then had a conversation about why Stephan thinks these forms of property should not exist and why the world would be better if they did not.
A Bit More About Stephan…
N. Stephan Kinsella (LL.M., King’s College London-University of London; JD, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU; BSEE and MSEE, LSU) is a libertarian writer and registered patent attorney in Houston. He has spoken, lectured and published widely on various areas of libertarian legal theory and on legal topics such as intellectual property law and international law. His publications include Law in a Libertarian World: Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Papinian Press, forthcoming) Against Intellectual Property (Mises Institute, 2008), International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide (Oxford, 2020), and several others.
Use these notes to follow along with the show:
Segment one:
Ron first heard Stephan Kinsella on the Tom Woods show, episode 2145. Link is here: https://tomwoods.com/ep-2145-does-intellectual-property-exist/
Stephan started out of law school in a big law firm. He has been a solo practitioner for the last 8-10 years but he’s “pretty much” retired now :)
Stephan published the original article about 20 years ago, “Against Intellectual Property” and here is a new, more general approach to the same article: https://c4sif.org/2022/05/against-intellectual-property-after-twenty-years-looking-back-and-looking-forward/
Everyone believes in property rights BUT property rights in any non-Libertarian system is summarized as, “You own your own stuff unless the government says otherwise.”
“Wealth is the subjective appraisal of things you own” —Stephan Kinsella
Stephan referenced the Sweat of the Brow Doctrine earlier today on the show. Here’s a good starting point for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat_of_the_brow
Segment two:
While working in Big Law, Stephan “billed every tenth of an hour every 6 minutes.” This was referred to internally in the firm as a shizzle.
Stephan has a great description of contracts on the show today. Contracts are all about communication by the owner as to whether they will or will not allow other people to use their resources (either temporarily or permanently).
The 4 main categories of IP in the United States are: patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets. Stephan goes into detail about this during segment two of the show.
In theory, patents are effectively monopoly control for 20 years that allows you to charge monopoly prices. There is no evidence that patents induce innovation whatsoever.
Patents kill. LITERALLY. Read more from Stephan Kinsella here: https://mises.org/wire/patents-kill-compulsory-licenses-and-genzymes-life-saving-drug
Segment three:
“The Overwhelming Empirical Case Against Patent and Copyright” by Stephan Kinsella: https://c4sif.org/2012/10/the-overwhelming-empirical-case-against-patent-and-copyright/
“Law and Intellectual Property in a Stateless Society” by Stephan Kinsella http://libertarianpapers.org/1-law-intellectual-property-stateless-society/
Most libertarians find some areas of libertarian theory more interesting than others. Stephan’s own passion has always been rights theory and related areas, such as the theory of contracts, causation, and punishment. More here: https://mises.org/library/intellectual-property-and-libertarianism
Despite the fact that there is widespread copying, the amount of art, design, music, and movies is greater than ever. Piracy/copying is obviously not a hinderance to progress.
Segment four:
“Attribution have nothing to do with copyright.” —Stephan Kinsella
“Plagiarism is simply representing someones work as your own. It has nothing to do with copyright.” —Stephan Kinsella
If you buy a fake Rolex for $20, there is no fraud involved. The buyer knows the Rolex is fake. Stephan talked through this during the last segment of our show today.
A big THANK YOU to our guest today, Stephan Kinsella. His work is deep and focused on abolishing IP. Check out StephanKinsella.com for links to his work.
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