He's wrong about copyright.
Copyright is a statist illusion and antithetical to private property AND art.
Konkin:
> Like all privileges, [copyrights] were grants of the king. The idea did not—could not—arise until Gutenberg’s printing press and it coincided with the rise of royal divinity, and soon after, the onslaught of mercantilism.
> So who benefits from this privilege? There is an economic impact I failed to mention earlier. It is, in Bastiat’s phrasing, the unseen. Copyright is a Big publisher’s method, under cover of protecting artists, of restraint of trade. Yes, we’re talking monopoly.
> For when the Corporation tosses its bone to the struggling writer, and an occasional steak to the pampered tenth of a percent, it receives an enforceable legal monopoly on the editing, typesetting, printing, packaging, marketing (including advertising) and sometimes even local distribution of that book or magazine. (In magazines, it also has an exclusivity in layout vs other articles and illustrations and published advertisements.) How’s that for vertical integration and restraint of trade?
Great points. I need to digest that. The ‘cult of the original’ (works attributed to creators) only emerged in the late medieval era. Also the idea of institutional identity (monasteries, then eventually, limited liability corporations) aside from the Church and Sovereign emerged during that time. Patents and copyrights have always been ‘monopolies’ granted by the State/King and part of our institutional framework that they are taken for granted.
The dealbreaker for me is: ideas aren't and cannot be property, in an Austrian economic sense. Attempting to _force_ ideas to act like property is a fool's errand (or a coercive State's hobby).
Copyright isn't about the physical goods/property that people create. Copyright attempts to be about _the ideas_ represented in the physical goods. 👎
The English Law Commission is starting to get a handle on that. They have identified an 'asset' or 'thing, that can exist despite the law. Everything else exists as a result of the law - patents, copyrights, etc. We are clearly working with the newly defined category.
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