what is wrong with the idea of “intellectual property”?
The analogy of intellectual property with physical property is erroneous. Not only should one not compare intellect with property, but the laws covering the two subjects are not the same. Property law is a system to manage the allocation of scarce physical resources, namely land and what is on that land, relying on the market system of supply and demand. Ideas however will never become scarce. Intellectual property law is a government-granted incentive — a subsidy — to encourage the creation of new ideas. It is a welfare system to prevent market failure around the, again erroneous notion that if people cannot profit from an idea they will not have that idea. Perhaps a more important argument against the idea of copywriting and patenting is the fact that all knowledge is context and time sensitive. No idea is cultivated in a vacuum or is completely unique. All thought and knowledge is built on what others have thought and done in the past. And there is always pure coincidence: the fac
