KOL491 | Trying to Persuade Paul Cwik of the Case Against IP

by Stephan Kinsella on June 10, 2026

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 491.

I’ve known Paul Cwik, Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Mount Olive and fellow of the Mises Institute since I started attending the Austrian Scholars Conference in 1995. He is an Austrian and libertarian of sorts but had some qualms with my anti-IP writing so presented a paper “Is There Room for Intellectual Property Rights in Austrian Economics?” at the Austrian Scholars Conference in 2008, which I attended and commented on. After 18 years we finally decided to get around to talking about this. I had planned on an hour but we ended up talking for 3. It turns out we were old friends but not that close; we didn’t know much about each other. So the first 30-50 minutes or so is more preliminary discussion.

To his credit, he read a good deal of the huge deluge of material I sent to read up on and asked many very good questions. He did not engage in intentional equivocation that is characteristic of many on the pro-IP side, and he was reasonable in conceding many of my points and was willing to ponder my push back.

I was hoping to get him to see the light, since I have in person seen many people change their minds on IP after a long discussion but have never had it happen while recording. We did not resolve the issue, partly because we just didn’t have enough time to keep going, but I think we made some progress. Maybe we will have a Part 2 later. Who knows.

For now, some relevant links pertaining to some of the topics discussed. I will organize this better later.

IP Proponents Do Not Even Know The Difference Between Patent, Copyright, Trademark …
Types of Intellectual Property
It is impossible to own ideas
Intellectual Property Rights as Negative Servitudes
The “Ontology” Mistake of Libertarian Creationists
See the Appendix to What Libertarianism Is: section “Concept and Definition of “Property””
The Structural Unity of Real and Intellectual Property
Gamrot, Labor as the Basis for Intellectual Property Rights: Against Cwik
The “Ontology” Mistake of Libertarian Creationists
Objectivists: “All Property is Intellectual Property”
A Recurring Fallacy: “IP is a Purer Form of Property than Material Resources”
New Working Paper: Machan on IP
“Aggression” versus “Harm” in Libertarianism
Kinsella v. Schulman on Logorights and IP
The Nature, Properties, and Characteristics of Goods (Igloo Coolers case)
Fraud, Restitution, and Retaliation: The Libertarian Approach
Libertarian Answer Man: Bitcoin and Fraud
KOL274 | Nobody Owns Bitcoin (PFS 2019)
On Property Rights in Superabundant Bananas and Property Rights as Normative Support for Possession
Libertarian Answer Man: Self-ownership for slaves and Crusoe; and Yiannopoulos on Accurate Analysis and the term “Property”; Mises distinguishing between juristic and economic categories of “ownership”
There are No Good Arguments for Intellectual Property
Defamation as a Type of Intellectual Property (and trademark)
KOL207 | Patent, Copyright, and Trademark Are Not About Plagiarism, Theft, Fraud, or Contract
KOL020 | “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society: Lecture 3: Applications I: Legal Systems, Contract, Fraud” (Mises Academy, 2011)
Copying vs. Plagiarism: A Recent Illustration—Grau vs. Hernandez on Milei
Re the practice of attribution and credit: see Stephan Kinsella,^“Mises, Rothbard, Hoppe: An Indispensable Framework,” in Rothbard at 100: A Tribute and Assessment, Stephan Kinsella and Hans-Hermann Hoppe, eds. (Houston: Papinian Press and Property and Freedom Society, 2026), in the section “Excursus: The Role of Ideas in Human Action”
- “Copying, Patent Infringement, Copyright Infringement are not “Theft”, Stealing, Piracy, Plagiarism, Knocking Off, Ripping Off“
- Intellectual Property Rights as Negative Servitudes
- Stop calling patent and copyright “property”; stop calling copying “theft” and “piracy”
- IP Proponents Do Not Even Know The Difference Between Patent, Copyright, Trademark …
Fraud:
- A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, Part III.E
- “The Title-Transfer Theory of Contract,” Part IV.C

Labor and Leisure

Creationism:

Part III.C.2

C. Contract and Fraud Arguments for IP

Fraud and Plagiarism

“Copying, Patent Infringement, Copyright Infringement are not “Theft”, Stealing, Piracy, Plagiarism, Knocking Off, Ripping Off“

IP by Contract

I discuss problems with the contractual argument for IP in:

Kinsella (2008, pp. 51–55) — Against Intellectual Property
Kinsella, April 8, 2025. “KOL458 | Patent and Copyright versus Innovation, Competition, and Property Rights (APEE 2025).” Kinsella on Liberty Podcast. Link
Kinsella, Law and Intellectual Property in a Stateless Society, Part III.C
Against Intellectual Property After Twenty Years: Looking Back and Looking Forward, n.46
June 13, 2021. “Richard O. Hammer: Intellectual Property Rights Viewed As Contracts.” C4SIF Blog. https://c4sif.org/2021/06/richard-o-hammer-intellectual-property-rights-viewed-as-contracts/
2023t, Stephan Kinsella on the Logic of Libertarianism and Why Intellectual Property Doesn’t Exist, text at n.52
Jan. 8, 2025. “David Gordon on IP.” C4SIF Blog. https://c4sif.org/2025/01/david-gordon-on-ip/
See also Wendy McElroy’s perceptive comments on this issue in Kinsella (March 19, 2013). “McElroy: ‘On the Subject of Intellectual Property’ (1981).” C4SIF Blog. Link
Bouckaert (1990, pp. 795 & 804–805). Bouckaert, Boudewijn (1990). “What is Property?” Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 13, no. 3: 775–816 (attached)