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Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 186.

The Great IP Debate: Stephan Kinsella vs. Alexander Baker  Liberty.me (July 8, 2014). From the Liberty.me description:

Intellectual property is one of the most controversial topics among libertarians. Can ideas be legitimate forms of property? Do the benefits of intellectual property laws, such as providing incentives for inventors, overcome the negatives, such as benefiting large corporations relative to newcomers in industry? Stephan Kinsella argues ideas are not and cannot be property, and that the negatives of IP easily outweigh the positives: IP amounts to a grant of government monopoly. Alexander Baker counters with a theory entitled “Intellectual Space” which argues that intangible goods (songs, movies, software, games) display all the same characteristics (homesteadable, useful, costly, scarce, rivalrous) as physical goods (bicycles, factories, diamonds), thus requiring property rights to eliminate conflict over their use.

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Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 185.

From a Liberty.me seminar from July 14, 2014.

Clarifying Libertarian Theory with Stephan Kinsella

Everyone seem to have an opinion about what the “correct” libertarianism is. What are its limits? What are the areas in which libertarians get bogged down in semantic arguments and minutiae, and what are the arguments that really matter? Stephan Kinsella believes that he has the answers, and will share them Monday, July 14th at 9pm EDT!

Video here, also embedded below:

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Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 184.

Last month I attended PorcFest 2015 and delivered this talk on intellectual property. Video version below (followed by a lower quality version shot by James Cox).

GROK SHOWNOTES: In this provocative lecture delivered at PorcFest 2015, titled “Intellectual Property is the Root of All Evil,” libertarian patent attorney Stephan Kinsella argues that intellectual property (IP) laws, specifically patents and copyrights, are fundamentally anti-libertarian, creating artificial scarcity on non-scarce ideas and violating natural property rights (0:00-10:00). Kinsella, leveraging Austrian economics, explains that property rights apply only to scarce, rivalrous resources to resolve conflicts, using examples like a patented mousetrap to show how IP restricts individuals from using their own property (10:01-25:00). He critiques IP’s historical roots in state monopolies, such as the 1623 Statute of Monopolies and 1710 Statute of Anne, and its practical harms, like stifling innovation and raising costs in industries such as pharmaceuticals (25:01-40:00). Kinsella’s bold claim frames IP as a root cause of economic and cultural distortions, undermining the free market’s ability to foster prosperity.

Kinsella debunks common pro-IP arguments, including the utilitarian notion that IP incentivizes innovation and the labor-based claim that creators deserve monopolies, citing IP-free markets like open-source software as evidence of robust competition-driven innovation (40:01-55:00). He explores IP’s broader impacts, such as copyrights limiting artistic expression and patents creating barriers in technology, and discusses alternatives like trade secrets and market incentives (55:01-1:10:00). In the Q&A, Kinsella addresses audience questions on transitioning to an IP-free world, the role of global IP treaties, and moral objections to IP, reinforcing his call for abolition to enable a free market of ideas (1:10:01-1:25:00). He concludes by urging libertarians to reject IP as a state-enforced evil, advocating for intellectual freedom to drive economic and cultural flourishing (1:25:01-1:25:43). This lecture is a fiery and accessible critique, perfect for those exploring libertarian arguments against IP.

Transcript and Grok Detailed Summary below

I also participated in a debate on anarchy and participated in a couple of radio shows (Ernie Hancock’s Freedom Phoenix and Free Talk Live). James Cox shot some other videos as well, which are up on his channel; a few of these are also embedded below.

Porcfest 2015: The Root of All Evil (official PorcFest version)

Lecture: Intellectual Property is the Root of All Evil: Porcfest 2015 (James Cox version)

Grok Detailed Summary

Bullet-Point Summary for Show Notes with Time Markers and Block Summaries
Overview
Stephan Kinsella’s KOL184 podcast, recorded at PorcFest 2015 in June 2015, is a lecture titled “Intellectual Property is the Root of All Evil.” As a libertarian patent attorney, Kinsella argues that IP laws—patents and copyrights—are state-enforced monopolies that violate property rights, stifle innovation, and distort markets and culture. Rooted in Austrian economics, the 85-minute lecture, followed by a Q&A, critiques IP’s philosophical, historical, and practical flaws, advocating for its abolition to enable a free market of ideas. Below is a summary with bullet points for key themes and detailed descriptions for approximately 5-15 minute blocks, based on the transcript at the provided link.
Key Themes with Time Markers
  • Introduction and IP’s Illegitimacy (0:00-10:00): Kinsella introduces the lecture, framing IP as a state-enforced evil that contradicts libertarian principles.
  • Property Rights and Scarcity (10:01-25:00): Argues property rights apply to scarce resources, not ideas, showing IP’s violation of natural rights.
  • Historical Roots and Economic Harms (25:01-40:00): Traces IP to state monopolies and details its economic costs, like pharmaceutical pricing.
  • Critique of Pro-IP Arguments (40:01-55:00): Debunks utilitarian and labor-based IP justifications, citing IP-free innovation.
  • Cultural Impacts and Alternatives (55:01-1:10:00): Explores IP’s cultural restrictions and market alternatives like trade secrets.
  • Q&A: Abolition and Objections (1:10:01-1:25:00): Addresses IP abolition logistics, global treaties, and moral issues, reinforcing anti-IP stance.
  • Conclusion (1:25:01-1:25:43): Urges rejection of IP as a root evil, advocating for intellectual freedom and market prosperity.
Block-by-Block Summaries
  • 0:00-5:00 (Introduction)
    Description: Kinsella opens at PorcFest 2015, introducing his lecture “Intellectual Property is the Root of All Evil” and his role as a libertarian patent attorney opposing IP (0:00-2:30). He outlines the lecture’s goal to expose IP’s philosophical and practical flaws, promising a Q&A to engage the audience (2:31-5:00).
    Summary: The block sets a provocative tone, framing IP as a state-enforced evil to be critiqued from a libertarian perspective.
  • 5:01-10:00 (IP’s Illegitimacy)
    Description: Kinsella argues that IP, including patents and copyrights, is illegitimate, using Austrian economics to explain that property rights apply to scarce, rivalrous resources, not non-scarce ideas (5:01-7:45). He introduces IP as a state-granted monopoly that distorts markets (7:46-10:00).
    Summary: IP’s philosophical illegitimacy is established, contrasting scarce resources with non-scarce ideas to challenge its foundation.
  • 10:01-15:00 (Property Rights and Scarcity)
    Description: Kinsella employs Mises’ praxeology to frame human action, where scarce resources are owned to avoid conflict, and ideas guide action without needing ownership (10:01-12:45). He illustrates with a cake recipe, arguing IP wrongly restricts knowledge use (12:46-15:00).
    Summary: The libertarian property framework is detailed, showing IP’s conflict with natural rights by restricting non-scarce ideas.
  • 15:01-20:00 (IP’s Violation of Rights)
    Description: Kinsella uses a patented mousetrap example to show how IP prevents owners from using their own resources, redistributing property rights to IP holders (15:01-17:30). He frames IP as a state-imposed violation of freedom (17:31-20:00).
    Summary: IP’s restrictive nature is highlighted, emphasizing its role as a state-enforced barrier to property use.
  • 20:01-25:00 (Market Distortions)
    Description: Kinsella argues that IP creates artificial scarcity, distorting markets by raising costs and limiting competition, using examples like software patents (20:01-22:45). He contrasts this with the free market’s reliance on emulation and knowledge sharing (22:46-25:00).
    Summary: IP’s economic distortions are explored, showing its anti-competitive impact on market dynamics.
  • 25:01-30:00 (Historical Roots)
    Description: Kinsella traces patents to the 1623 Statute of Monopolies and copyrights to the 1710 Statute of Anne, arguing they originated as state privileges and censorship tools, not market mechanisms (25:01-27:45). He links this to modern IP’s monopolistic structure (27:46-30:00).
    Summary: IP’s statist origins are detailed, reinforcing its incompatibility with free-market principles.
  • 30:01-35:00 (Pharmaceutical Harms)
    Description: Kinsella critiques IP’s harm in pharmaceuticals, where patents delay generics, inflating prices and limiting access, costing lives (30:01-32:30). He argues this prioritizes corporate profits over human welfare (32:31-35:00).
    Summary: Specific economic harms in pharmaceuticals are highlighted, showing IP’s real-world impact on health and costs.
  • 35:01-40:00 (Innovation Barriers)
    Description: Kinsella argues that IP stifles innovation through patent trolling and litigation, citing technology sectors where patents create barriers (35:01-37:45). He contrasts this with competition-driven progress in IP-free markets (37:46-40:00).
    Summary: IP’s role in hindering innovation is explored, advocating for a market free of monopolistic restrictions.
  • 40:01-45:00 (Utilitarian Argument Critique)
    Description: Kinsella debunks the utilitarian claim that IP incentivizes innovation, citing studies (e.g., Boldrin and Levine) showing minimal benefits and high costs like litigation (40:01-42:30). He highlights open-source software’s success without IP (42:31-45:00).
    Summary: The utilitarian justification is refuted, with evidence supporting IP-free innovation as more effective.
  • 45:01-50:00 (Labor/Desert Argument)
    Description: Kinsella critiques the labor/desert argument, claiming creators deserve IP for their efforts, arguing that property stems from first use, not labor (45:01-47:30). He uses a marble statue example to clarify that creation doesn’t grant ownership of ideas (47:31-50:00).
    Summary: The labor-based argument is debunked, reinforcing that IP misapplies property concepts to non-scarce ideas.
  • 50:01-55:00 (IP-Free Markets)
    Description: Kinsella cites IP-free industries like open-source software and fashion, where competition and first-mover advantages drive innovation (50:01-52:45). He argues markets thrive without IP’s restrictions, fostering prosperity (52:46-55:00).
    Summary: IP-free markets demonstrate robust innovation, supporting the case for IP abolition.
  • 55:01-1:00:00 (Cultural Impacts)
    Description: Kinsella discusses IP’s cultural distortions, like copyrights limiting artistic remixing or fan fiction, stifling creativity (55:01-57:45). He advocates for a free market of ideas to enhance cultural output and access (57:46-1:00:00).
    Summary: IP’s negative cultural effects are explored, promoting unrestricted creative freedom as a solution.
  • 1:00:01-1:05:00 (Alternatives to IP)
    Description: Kinsella discusses alternatives like trade secrets, which don’t restrict others’ use, and market incentives, citing J.K. Rowling’s success without needing IP monopolies (1:00:01-1:02:45). He emphasizes competition as a driver of innovation (1:02:46-1:05:00).
    Summary: Non-IP mechanisms are showcased, demonstrating that markets reward creators without state-enforced monopolies.
  • 1:05:01-1:10:00 (Economic and Social Costs)
    Description: Kinsella details IP’s broader costs, like reduced access to knowledge and higher prices, citing textbook prices driven up by copyrights (1:05:01-1:07:45). He contrasts this with the prosperity of IP-free markets (1:07:46-1:10:00).
    Summary: IP’s societal toll is outlined, emphasizing its role in limiting knowledge and increasing costs.
  • 1:10:01-1:15:00 (Q&A: Transition to IP-Free World)
    Description: In the Q&A, Kinsella addresses transitioning to an IP-free world, arguing markets would adapt through competition and incentives like first-mover advantages (1:10:01-1:12:45). He responds to concerns about innovation, citing IP-free successes like open-source software (1:12:46-1:15:00).
    Summary: The Q&A explores the logistics of IP abolition, reinforcing its feasibility with market-driven examples.
  • 1:15:01-1:20:00 (Q&A: Global Treaties)
    Description: Kinsella critiques global IP treaties, like the Paris and Berne Conventions, for entrenching corporate monopolies and harming developing nations’ access to technology (1:15:01-1:17:45). He discusses anti-IP strategies, like education and advocacy (1:17:46-1:20:00).
    Summary: Global treaty issues are addressed, highlighting IP’s inequities and the need for abolition.
  • 1:20:01-1:25:00 (Q&A: Moral Objections)
    Description: Kinsella refutes moral arguments for IP, arguing it’s theft of property rights from resource owners, and addresses cultural impacts, like limiting access to literature (1:20:01-1:22:45). He advocates for anti-IP education to shift cultural norms (1:22:46-1:25:00).
    Summary: Moral and cultural objections are tackled, promoting a vision of intellectual freedom and market solutions.
  • 1:25:01-1:25:43 (Conclusion)
    Description: Kinsella concludes, summarizing IP as the “root of all evil” for its statist distortions, urging libertarians to reject it and embrace a free market of ideas for economic and cultural prosperity (1:25:01-1:25:43).
    Summary: The lecture ends with a passionate call to abolish IP, advocating for intellectual and economic freedom.

This summary provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of Kinsella’s KOL184 lecture at PorcFest 2015, suitable for show notes, with time markers for easy reference and block summaries capturing the progression of his argument. The transcript from the provided link was used to ensure accuracy, supplemented by general knowledge of Kinsella’s anti-IP stance and PorcFest’s libertarian context from search results. Time markers are estimated based on the transcript’s structure and the 85-minute duration, as the audio was not directly accessible.

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Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 183.

I recently attended PorcFest 2015 and participated in a debate on anarchy and other matters, plus a speech on IP as the Root of All Evil. The YouTube, filmed by James Cox, is below. The audio here was captured by my iphone.

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Foreword to A Spontaneous Order

Below is the text of my foreword to the recently released book A Spontaneous Order: The Capitalist Case for a Stateless Society by Chase Rachels. Also republished at the Live Free Blog, the blog of Gary Johnson’s Our America Initiative). Audio at KOL339 | Foreword to A Spontaneous Order.

[Update: See Hoppe, A Note on Chase Rachels’s Book.

Also: re greatest books: See also Dave Smith tweet; Walter Block The 10 Books That Have Most Influenced Walter Block.]

Foreword

Modern libertarian theory is only about five decades old. The ideas that have influenced our greatest thinkers can be traced back centuries, of course, 1 to luminaries such as Hugo Grotius, John Locke, Thomas Paine, Herbert Spencer, David Hume, and John Stuart Mill, and to more recent and largely even more radical thinkers such as Gustave de Molinari, Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, Bertrand de Jouvenal, Franz Oppenheimer, and Albert Jay Nock. 2

The beginnings of the modern movement can be detected in the works of the “three furies of libertarianism,” as Brian Doherty calls them: Rose Wilder Lane, Ayn Rand, and Isabel Patterson, whose respective books The Discovery of Freedom, The Fountainhead, and The God of the Machine were all published, rather remarkably, in the same year: 1943. 3 But in its more modern form, libertarianism originated in the 1960s and 1970s from thinkers based primarily in the United States, notably Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard. 4 Other significant influences on the nascent libertarian movement include Ludwig von Mises, author of Liberalism (1927) and Human Action (1949, with a predecessor version published in German in 1940); Nobel laureate F.A. von Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom (1944); Leonard Read, head of the Foundation for Economic Education (founded 1946); and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, author of the influential Capitalism and Freedom (1962). [continue reading…]

  1. For more on this, see Brian Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement (2008), and David Boaz, The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao Tzu to Milton Friedman (1998). []
  2.  See Boaz, The Libertarian Reader, id. []
  3. See Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism, id. []
  4. Update: For those who doubt this: “The contemporary libertarian movement in the United States may be precisely dated as beginning just after World War II. … Into this wasteland there stepped Leonard E. Read, late of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the National Industrial Conference Board, who, in 1946, founded the Foundation for Economic Education. The creation of FEE marked the beginning of the modern libertarian movement in America.” MURRAY N. ROTHBARD, “TOWARD A STRATEGY FOR LIBERTARIAN SOCIAL CHANGE” (APRIL, 1977).  See also: from Roderick Long’s foreword to the Laissez-Faire Books edition of Jerome Tuccille’s It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand, “It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand is a jazz improvisation on the early history of the modern libertarian movement.” From Hoppe: “At the academic level, Rothbard’s lifelong work for the scholarship of liberty has at long last come to serve as the foundational theoretical edifice for the modern successors of the old classical-liberal movement–the movement that originally influenced the development of the basic libertarian position.”
    And for those who dislike or are ignorant of Ayn Rand or deny her seminal influence in our movement, they really should read Rothbard’s and Mises’s letters to Rand, fawning over her and acknowledging her importance. []
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PorcFest 2015: Anarchism, for and against: a debate

I’ll be speaking at PorcFest 2015 (Jun. 24-27) on “Intellectual Property: The Root of All Evil”, 5:00pm EST, Fri. June 26.

Earlier that morning, at 10:30am, I’ll be participating in Anarchism, for and against: a debate,” debating Objectivist Will Thomas, with noted Objectivist philosopher David Kelley moderating.

My main writing on anarchy can be found in my rights theory and in my article What It Means To Be an Anarcho-Capitalist. For more resources on related topics, see:

Event description:

Does a commitment to liberty imply a commitment to anarchy, or the total elimination of government? Is a stable, anarchic system of liberty possible or desirable? David Kelley will moderate a debate on these issues between Stephan Kinsella Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom and William Thomas of The Atlas Society.

Moderators

avatar for David Kelley

David Kelley

Chief Intellectual Officer, The Atlas Society
David Kelley is the founder and Chief Intellectual Officer of The Atlas Society. After earning a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University in 1975, he joined the philosophy department of Vassar College, where he remained until 1984. He has also taught at Brandeis University as a Visiting Lecturer. Among his books are Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence; The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand; The Evidence of the Senses, a… Read More →

Speakers

avatar for Stephan Kinsella

Stephan Kinsella

Executive Editor, Libertarian Papers
Stephan Kinsella is a practicing patent attorney and a libertarian writer and speaker. He Founder and Executive Editor of Libertarian Papers, Director of the Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (C4SIF). A former adjunct professor at South Texas College of Law, he has published numerous articles and books on IP law, international law, and the application of libertarian principles to legal topics, including Against Intellectual Property… Read More →
avatar for William Thomas

William Thomas

Director of Programs, The Atlas Society – The Center for Objectivism
William R Thomas is Director of Programs at The Atlas Society. He has a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Michigan, and has served as Lecturer in Economics there and at the University at Albany. He has been a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia and conducted research under the auspices of the People’s University of China. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Thomas is the… Read More →

 

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My article, Beware the Trans-Pacific Partnership: It’s Not About Free Trade, was published yesterday at BAMSouth. Unfortunately, some free market thinkers seem to be in support of the TPP, e.g. Tyler Cowen, some people at Cato, etc. (see Cato vs. Public Citizen on IP and the TPP).

Reprinted at FEE.org.

Update: See Jeff Tucker, This Trade Treaty Got Better when the US Bailed

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Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 182.

In January 2014, Stefan Molyneux (of FreeDomain Radio) and I had a discussion with Harrison Fischberg about the foundation of libertarian ethics. I just realized that I never put this on my podcast feed so—here it is.

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On Selling Immigration Rights

Some fun old LewRockwell.com posts from a while back—which I was reminded of by this recent article: Malta Offers Citizenship and All Its Perks for a Price: “But the residency requirements, meant to make the program more palatable, are only increasing the consternation among critics, who say the program has resulted in the sale of citizenship to the global 0.1 percent.”

Update: Trump says $5m ‘gold card’ immigration visas will ‘sell like crazy’; US Commerce Secretary claims many takers for $5 million Gold Cards, says 1,000 sold in a day; tweet

Immigration Idea (Sep. 22, 2004)

How about this compromise: we remove all barriers to immigration except one: we charge a fee. I propose we charge somewhere between $1 million and $10 million per family. That way you guarantee you get fairly decent (non-criminal, educated, successful, civil, etc.) quality immigrants.

If, say, 100,000 families (about 400,000 people, say) immigrate per year and pay $1 million each, that’s $100 billion per year.

5:20 pm on September 22, 2004

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My Religious and Political Conversions

I’ve explained part of my intellectual progress to libertarianism before. 1 On occasion I’m asked about my views on philosophy, Ayn Rand/Objectivism, and religion. So a short précis is in order.

I was born in 1965 in Louisiana and attended private Catholic schools. I a good student, bookish, and loved philosophy and science. I was very interested in religion and was very devout; I was an altar boy for several years. For a while I was reading books on various occult or pseudoscientific topics, e.g. pyramid power, Nostradamus, Chariots of the Gods, how to cast spells, and the like. I never really believed it, I think (though I did try a few spells), but it stoked my imagination, just as Star Wars and sci-fi and novels and comics did. [continue reading…]

  1.  How I Became A LibertarianLewRockwell.com, December 18, 2002; published as “Being a Libertarian” in I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians (compiled by Walter Block; Mises Institute 2010). See also The Greatest Libertarian Books. See also other biographical material. []
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My article New Rationalist Directions in Libertarian Rights Theory, originally published in the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 1996, 1 which had previously been translated into Dutch, has now been translated, by João Marcos Theodoro (revisão de Marcos Paulo Silva do Nascimento), into Portugese, as Novas Direções Racionalistas nas Teorias Libertárias do Direito. This article discusses and summarizes Hoppe’s argumentation ethics defense of libertarian rights, 2 my complementary estoppel-based defense of rights, 3 and related ethical/normative theories. The article served as the initial basis for two Wikipedia pages: discourse ethics and argumentation ethics.

Nowadays, everyone knows me for my IP views, but this is my true interest and passion.

To date, my writing has been translated into fourteen languages.

  1. Vol. 12, No. 2, Fall 1996, pp. 313–26.[]
  2. See my Argumentation Ethics and Liberty: A Concise Guide.[]
  3. See KOL181 | Tom Woods Show: It Is Impossible to Argue Against Libertarianism Without Contradiction and links collected there.[]
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Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 181.

I discussed argumentation ethics with Tom Woods on his show today:

Ep. 370 It Is Impossible to Argue Against Libertarianism Without Contradiction

Stephan Kinsella discusses the argumentation ethics of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, who argues that only libertarian norms can be argumentatively.
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Tom cleverly chose as the title for the episode a provocative one reminiscent of the bold title of Hoppe’s Liberty article,  “The Ultimate Justification of the Private Property Ethic” (September 1988).

See also Tom Woods on the Origin of Rights and Hoppe’s Argumentation Ethic

I’ve discussed it several times in the past in audio and text. See, e.g.:

Update: response by Bob Murphy here: Stephan Kinsella Discusses Argumentation Ethics With Tom Woods. For more: see Defending Argumentation Ethics: Reply to Murphy & Callahan, Anti-state.com (Sept. 19, 2002) (wayback version) (reply to Bob Murphy and Gene Callahan, Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Argumentation Ethic: A CritiqueAnti-state.com (Sept. 19, 2002; wayback version; more recent version at JLS; Block’s rejoinder); debate discussed in this forum).

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