The upcoming documentary, Copyright Criminals, shows how copyright has outrageously criminalized the use of sampling, which has been disproportionately popular in hip hop music. In this, it calls to mind the racially disproportionate impact of drug laws on minorities…
Copyright Criminals – Trailer from IndiePix on Vimeo.
Next post: @sh*tmydadsays on Pessimism v. Optimism
Previous post: Why Spam is Trespass
Stephan Kinsella is a libertarian writer and patent attorney in Houston, Texas. He has published widely on various areas of libertarian legal theory and on legal topics such as intellectual property law and international law. His publications include Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Papinian Press, 2023), Against Intellectual Property (Mises Institute, 2008), and International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide (Oxford, 2020).
My Failed Libertarian Speaking Hiatus; Memories of Mises Institute and Other Events, 1988–20192025
The Libertarian Standard (TLS)
© 2012-2024 StephanKinsella.com 
To the extent possible under law, Stephan Kinsella has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to material on this Site, unless indicated otherwise. In the event the CC0 license is unenforceable a 
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License is hereby granted.
By this logic, walking out of a music store with a trombone you didn’t pay for, or kidnapping a drummer to “lay down some beats” is acceptable behavior.
When I hear these ignorant children crying, my first thought is, “If you had even the slightest bit of talent, you wouldn’t need to use other people’s music.”
But then, when someone bases their entire “career” around taking advantage of the undereducated and clueless, I guess this is what should be expected.
Grow up.
J. Schaffer, you, sir are a complete and total moron.
Almost 0% of musicians invented their instruments, the scales used, the beats used, the method of playing their instrument, or any of that stuff. It does not appear out of nowhere out of whole cloth. All artists are thieves. Period. If you don’t understand that you either don’t understand art or artists, or are just a willfully ignorant prick.
The difference is artists call the people they steal form their “influences”. Learn to decode euphemisms.
Your comment was crass, worthless, and added nothing to the IP debate.
Oh, and your first sentence is either called a Slippery Slope, Straw Man or Red Herring argument, depending on how you want to look at it. Which shows that you not only don’t understand art, but you are clueless on logical debating as well.