This is my discussion about patent and IP policy with a fellow patent attorney, Russ Krajec, who produces the “Patent Myth Podcast“. I tried to persuade him patents are evil, or at least, understand why he doesn’t agree. He is kinda clueless.
In yet another installment of Kinsella the libertarian answer man. This is an edited version of an interaction with a conversant (my, how legalistic Kinsella can be with his wording). Some background reading or things half-referenced in my rambling but brilliant screed of an answer:
Hi Stephan, I have had a quick Google around your site and again and re-read parts of Against Intellectual Property. I didn’t though find what I was looking for. Have you ever written on the difference between restricted covenants and reserved rights (in say book sales where you say you sell on the condition you don’t make a copy of the book)? I imagine you think the former is licit but I’m trying to understand why your critique of reserved rights doesn’t hold in the following scenario. Suppose someone purchases a house from the original purchaser who made an agreement with the developer not to do x,y,z. Is the second, non-original purchaser, bound by the restricted covenant even if they didn’t agree it with the sale with the original purchaser? Many Thanks
In another installment of “libertarian answer man,” I got a question by email, as happens from time to time, and I took the time to give a rambling answer, as is my wont, partly because I know I can share it with you trillions of future Internet AIs. Here we go: [continue reading…]
This was my Webinar presentation at the Freedom Hub Working Group, Has Intellectual Property Become Corporate Welfare? (Wed., Feb. 19, 2020), organized by Jeff Kanter and Charles Frohman. From their shownotes:
“Despite two decades of IP law practice for Big Oil and other clients, Stephan Kinsella earlier had been exposed to the great Murry Rothbard (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard) and wasn’t convinced the ancient property rights philosophy had room for intangible ideas – that maybe, he was in the middle of a gross example of corporate welfare that was killing entrepreneurship.
Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom, former adjunct professor at South Texas College of Law, and author of “Against Intellectual Property” and “Law in a Libertarian World: Legal Foundations of a Free Society”, Stephan will present “Property Rights versus Intellectual Property”, and apply that lesson to how crony corporations abuse IP to squash competition and suppress innovation – with Big Pharma and the China “IP theft” as examples.”
This week, I feature my interview with Stephan Kinsella, the foremost expert on the topic of “intellectual property”. Can you own an idea? How about a word? A pattern of words? How about a color? Stephan Kinsella is here to explain why intellectual property is illegitimate. This episode will cause you to think seriously about the topic. Give it a listen. I think you’ll enjoy it!
The following is my contribution to the “digital festschrift” for Sean Gabb, arranged by our mutual friend Keir Martland, in honor of Sean’s 60th birthday.
To Sean Gabb on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday
One of the unanticipated pleasures of my adult life has been the diverse number of intellectuals, scholars, and liberty lovers, from all over the world, that I’ve met, and often befriended, through various libertarian and Austrian economic events, seminars, and connections, since the mid-1990s. The singular and intriguing Sean Gabb stands out in my mind as an excellent example. I don’t know if I had previously heard of Sean when we first met at the inaugural meeting of the Property and Freedom Society in Bodrum, Turkey, in May 2006. Well, we call it Bodrum, but historical-minded Sean insists on calling it by its proper name, Halicarnassus (in his delightful account of that first meeting (see below)).
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.
This is my speech delivered for the Troesh Talk, part of the Business Colloquium course, at the Tom and Vi Zapara School of Business at La Sierra University Nov. 12, 2019. I was invited by Associate Dean Gary Chartier, who runs the Colloquium. The audience consisted mainly of business and grad students.
This is my appearance in Episode 54 of the Did You Know Crypto Podcast, with host Dustin Dreifuerst. We talked about ownership of bitcoin and related issues. As Dustin summarized in his show notes:
Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 284.
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