I participated in a debate sponsored by America’s Future Foundation-Phoenix this past Thursday, Nov. 14, against local patent attorney Maria Crimi Speth. This is the audio from my iPhone. Probably inferior. I’ll release better quality media if it becomes available later.
Podcast (kinsella-on-liberty): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:26 — 36.9MB)
Stephan Kinsella is a libertarian writer and retired 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), International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution: A Practitioner’s Guide (Oxford, 2020), and The Universal Principles of Liberty (2025).
My Failed Libertarian Speaking Hiatus; Memories of Mises Institute and Other Events, 1988–20192025
I wish that last confused old man in the Q&A could have argued his principled IP position with Maria, eg. how copyrights should last a lifetime. (To hear her explain to him how IP isn’t actually property, even though she just finished comparing it to a car in one’s garage. For example, to continue her analogy, that she believes that one should be forced to give one’s car away after a few years :P.) Or you could have offered the painfully obvious clarification that nothing is “stolen” when information is copied. Sigh.
Hippity hoppity, the last guy accidentally explained why IP is not property.