Intellectual Space

I've had lengthy philosophical discussions with Stephen Davis, a vocal and energetic support of Kinsellist ideology. Our longest thread ever is in the comments to this article: homesteadip.liberty.me/2014/09/08/roger-browne-deconstructed/ Finally, at long last, Stephen Davis had the intellectual honesty to admit what I've been saying all along. Kinsella's anti-IP theory is simply an elaborate philosophical hoax. Kinsella has cleverly built his conclusion (property must be physical) into his premise ("rivalry" must be physical, "use" must be physical, etc. After following him down every intellectual dark alley and up every intangible steep mountain, and showing at every turn that IP behaves identically...

By Alexander Baker Vote0 21

Hello world!

By Alexander Baker Vote0 1

Tatiana Moroz is a wonderfully talented singer-songwriter, lover of liberty, and member here at liberty.me. A few months ago I engaged her on the issue of copyright. I asked Tatiana if it was OK that I downloaded her songs, put my own name on as writer, and then licensed them for use on a TV show so that I could collect the license fees and performance royalties for myself. Tatiana was reluctant to take a position on copyright, with me anyway, and I get it. I think she feels really conflicted. On the one hand, she instinctively understands that her...

By Alexander Baker Vote1 28

As a thought experiment, suppose you were judge / jury and asked to decide a dispute about ownership of a car. Suppose we live in a Kinsellist society, with respect for property rights in physical things, but no observance of patent, copyright, or any form of IP. Albert possesses a car, which appears to be a brand-new “Pluto 4000”, a well-known sophisticated car model manufactured by Brian Motors. Albert claims he built the car with his own hands and own materials, from scratch. Brian owns the car factory, and does business as “Brian Motors”. Brian claims that Albert sneaked into...

By Alexander Baker Vote0 21

Toady marks the 200th Anniversary of slave-owner Francis Scott Key’s poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry”, later renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”, set to the tune of a traditional English drinking song, and officially made “our” National Anthem. Although the War of 1812 can at least arguably be construed as “defensive”, the anthem has long since been effectively used to inspire support for the United States’ endless wars of naked aggression. Below is my version, written last night. What would happen if a famous singer belted these words at the next big ball game? The Star-Spangled Bomber Oh say can you...

By Alexander Baker Vote3 0

Never forget . . . The state told you this was a "collapse". You were so traumatized, you believed them. Two of the largest steel structures on earth were literally dissociated into microscopic dust particles, and spread out all over lower Manhattan. The huge spike in radioactivity was blamed on tritium from the "exit signs" in the "airplanes". Workers discovered glowing hot molten metal weeks later. Underground "anaerobic fires" continued to "burn" for months on end, despite being covered with acres of fresh dirt, constant watering, rainstorms, and freezing temperatures. Strontium and barium, the chemical fingerprint of reacted plutonium, were...

By Alexander Baker Vote3 4

There’s been a bit of a stir lately over the naked pictures of Jennifer Lawrence that hackers were able to copy and distribute. Suppose it happened to you. Suppose a guy named Zeke hacks and copies all your personal information, including name, address, phone, bank numbers, intimate photos . . . everything. Zeke then publishes all this on his own site, for all the world to see. Within a few hours, hundreds of people download copies of all your info. In my favored society, i.e. a stateless free society founded on respect for property rights (including copyright), the legal recourse...

By Alexander Baker Vote0 5

Here are comments from Roger Browne (quoted) with my comments (interspersed). 1. A singer would indeed be unlikely to buy a song she has never heard, from a songwriter she has never heard of. That’s not the situation I was intending to describe. I’m thinking of an established songwriter who is writing a new work. Do you imagine that some babies are born as established songwriters? Without exception, every "established" songwriter began as an unknown songwriter. Perhaps a singer commissioned the work to be written, on the basis of the writer’s reputation and previous work. What previous work? See, like...

By Alexander Baker Vote0 75

Below is the section “Music Without Intellectual Property” from Stephan Kinsella’s “Do Business Without Intellectual Property”. Kinsella would have done well to learn just a little about the subject before writing about it. Had he done so, he might have discovered that music must be written (by a writer) before it is performed (by an artist). Here are Kinsella’s talking points (quoted) with my comments (interspersed) Music without Intellectual Property • Free distribution. Musicians make their money from other sources. Let people copy your hits. Let YouTube flourish. People will want to buy tickets to hear your concerts. There’s no...

By Alexander Baker Vote0 6

Economic goods are scarce. One might think that scarcity arises from the quantity of things in existence. After all, look around. There are only so many rocks, so many fruit trees, an so on. This view, however, is wrong. Other than naturally-occurring, super-abundant free goods (like atmospheric air), goods must be produced. All production involves the expenditure of human effort. Human effort is limited. No matter how hard you try, there is only so much you can do. The supply of physical matter is literally inexhaustible. The quantity of aluminum, just near the Earth's surface, is so vast that we...

By Alexander Baker Vote3 72

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Kinsella: Music Without Intellectual Property Sep 7, 2014

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