In a previous post , I noted that Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz had advocated replacing the patent system with a system for “awarding prizes”—presumably taxpayer funded—for innovations and inventions. In Scrooge and intellectual property rights , Stiglitz endorses a “medical prize fund” that “would give large rewards for cures or
The issue of whether non-scarce things like thoughts or labor are ownable has arisen in recent debates—see, e.g., Thoughts on Intellectual Property, Scarcity, Labor-ownership, Metaphors, and Lockean Homesteading ; Intellectual Property and Think Tank Corruption ; and New Working Paper: Machan on IP . Johan Ridenfeldt called to my attention
In a recent email, Walter Block wrote, responding some pessimistic comments I had about our libertarian movement: “Dear Stephan: I never feel like dropping out. Never. No matter what. To me, libertarianism is a most beautiful thing, right up there with Mozart and Bach. Illegitimi non carborundum . I replied with some comments, and Walter
A friend interested in law, legal theory, and possibly law school asked me for some recommendations for some good books (or articles, I suppose) that discuss private law systems, international law, the common law, etc.--with particular emphasis on explaining the common law’s or private law’s philosophical underpinnings. I am drawing a blank on
As mentioned previously in Spyware and Trespass , spam can, in principle, properly be considered a type of trespass—since it is a means by which the spammer uninvitedly uses another’s property. As noted, a classic case is CompuServe v. Cyber Promotions , which held that transmitting a substantial volume of unsolicited e-mail to someone’s computer,
Interesting recent article, Praxeology and Certainty of Knowledge , by Objectivist Gennady Stolyarov II, editor of The Rational Argumentator (Le Quebecoise Libre). Relies heavily on Hoppe’s and Mises’s praxeology and
The February issue of IP Law & Business has a couple of interesting pieces (free registration required): “Pulling Back the Covers” (Google is dragging the book world online. Will the publishing industry make the leap with its copyrights intact?), and “Meet the dotCommunist” (about Eben Moglen : “This Columbia law professor believes all
Poor government. It tries to encourage hybrid cars with tax breaks and penalties. Then those cars are threatened by people using the government’s grants of artificial patent monopolies. Poor state. The state tries to keep pharmaceutical companies from charging too-high prices for drugs like Cipro --prices which are too high because of the state’s
As I noted dudderday on Lew’s blog, an Objectivist blog claimed that “Greg Perkins has written a very powerful critique of the libertarian opposition to Intellectual Property rights for the February issue of Axiomatic. I don’t think it will shut the libertarians up, but it will put their arguments to rest.” Now Perkins writes me to inform me the
I’ve previously argued that the Constitution does not (and should not) prohibit state takings that violate standards in the Fifth Amendment (see: A Libertarian Defense of ‘Kelo’ and Limited Federal Power ; also More on Kelo and Federalism and related links here . In today’s Cato Daily Dispatch , there’s an item entitled “Property Owners Win Big
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.