Congress should:

repeal intellectual property laws, even though the Constitution allows them.
(The Constitution permitted slavery, too.)

Intellectual ideas cannot be “property.” Patents and copyrights are government-granted monopolies. They are designed to impede competition and increase prices for consumers. There is a significant number of studies which show that these monopolies hurt creativity and invention, and are damaging to growth, prosperity and liberty.

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"In the beginning was the Word...." John 1:1

Every new idea is the connection between two previous ideas. When a stand-up comic in Los Angeles creates a joke, he connects two ideas that we had never connected before, in a way that makes us laugh.  When a stand-up comic in New York connects the same two ideas at exactly the same time as the comic in L.A., he has his lawyer draw up copyright papers which are filed in Washington D.C. That night, in two separate night-clubs, the comics recite their jokes. The next day, the New York comic sues the L.A. comic for infringement of copyright. The L.A. comic stands his ground, denying that he plagiarized the New York comic. But in court, the New York comic proves he filed his papers first, the L.A. comic loses, and if he refuses to pay the extortion demanded of him, he will be locked up in a federal prison with a psychopath who will inflict unspeakable violence on the comic.

An assistant at a grocery store in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, was ordered by the Performing Right Society (PRS) to obtain a performer's license and to pay royalties because she was informally singing popular songs while stocking groceries. The PRS later backed down and apologized. This after the same store had turned off the radio after a warning from the PRS. We have entered an era where music is no longer an art for all to enjoy, but rather a form of private property that must be regulated and taxed like alcohol. 'Music to the ears' has become 'dollars in the bank.'" Slashdot Entertainment Story | Singer In Grocery Store Ordered To Pay Royalties

George Washington is reported to have said,

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. . . .

Intellectual property laws are the use of force and violence to restrict the spread of ideas. Of words.

Intellectual property laws are government-granted monopolies designed to impede competition in a Free Market.

Property/Rights-based Arguments

• Against Intellectual Property, Spring 2001, Vol. 15, no. 2 Journal of Libertarian Studies, Stephan Kinsella
• In Defense of Napster and Against the Second Homesteading Rule, September 4, 2000, LewRockwell.com, Stephan Kinsella (summary version of some of the arguments presented in “Against Intellectual Property”)
• The Morality of Acquiring and Enforcing Patents, Stephan Kinsella
• Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State and Power and Market, Scholars Edition, liv, 745-54, 1133-38, 1181-86
• Murray N. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty, pp. 123–24
• Contra Copyright, Wendy McElroy, The Voluntaryist, June 1985
• The Libertarian Case Against Intellectual Property Rights, Roderick T. Long, Formulations 3, no. 1 (Autumn 1995)
• Intellectual Property: Copyright and Patent in Liberty (from The Debates of Liberty, Wendy McElroy

Utilitarian Considerations

• My Suggestion On Patent Law | Mark Cuban
• Patents and Copyrights: Do the Benefits Exceed the Costs?, Fall 2001, Vol. 15 Num. 4 Journal of Libertarian Studies, Julio H. Cole
• On the Abuse of Patents as Economic Indicators, Winter 1998, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Pierre Desrochers
• Ludwig von Mises, Human Action 3rd rev. ed. Chicago: Henry Regnery (1966), chap. 23, section 6, pp. 661–62; see also pp. 128, 364
• The Case Against the Patent System, Pierre Desrochers, Le Québécois Libre, Sept. 2, 2000
• George Reisman, Capitalism, pp. 388-89 & 417-20; also 40, 96, 187, 216, 233

Mises Daily

• Rethinking Patent Law, July 18, 2000, Mises.org, Gene Callahan,
• Patent Wrongs, March 29, 2001, Mises.org, Ilana Mercer
• Cipro Shortage: An Invented Scarcity, October 25, 2001, Mises.org, Ilana Mercer

LewRockwell.com

• Letter to an Anonymous Patent Attorney, Stephan Kinsella
• Patently Absurd, Wendy McElroy
• Of Patents and Pooper-Scoopers, Karen De Coster
• My Un-PC Views on ‘Intellectual Property’, Jeremy Sapienza
• The Fraud of ‘Intellectual Property’
• The Government Copyright System Is Dying, Gary North

• Molinari Institute - Anti-Copyright Resources
• Carson on Intellectual "Property"
• Who's Afraid of the Public Domain?
• AFP: Rush for patents is choking US stem cell research
• Patent panic
• Kinsella: Intellectual Property Information
• There's No Such Thing As a Free Patent - Balancing Costs and Benefits - N. Stephan Kinsella - Mises Institute
• Patently Absurd
• Mickey Mouse and Foghorn Leghorn
• The Real Napsters
• In Defense of Napster and Against the Second Homesteading Rule
• The Bell Tolls for FreeRepublic.com
• The Real World
• Too Few Cipros?
• Dirty, Rotten Copyright Violators on the Web
• Letter to an Anonymous Patent Attorney
• The Fraud of ‘Intellectual Property’
• My Un-PC Views on ‘Intellectual Property’

• Intellectual Property Online Resource Directories
• Intellectual Property (33)
• Intellectual Property: Copy this column

• Cipro Shortage: An Invented Scarcity
• Nike Is Right
• Patent Wrongs
• Private Courts
• Rethinking Patent Law
• Trustbusting
• Truth on Trade
• What's Wrong with Forced Disclosure?
• "Against Intellectual Property"
• Against Intellectual Property
• Intellectual Property Without Coercion
• Intellectual Property Versus Real Property | Foundation for Economic Education
• US government finally admits most piracy estimates are bogus

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Dissent: In Support of the Concept of Intellectual Property...

George Reisman argues that if you believe "identity theft" is wrong, you must believe that theft of "intellectual property" is also wrong.

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Stephen Kinsella:

You may find these blog posts of interest:

• Miracle--An Honest Patent Attorney!--he admits the patent system is a waste and drag on the economy
• Patent Trolls and Empirical Thinking
• Patent and Penicillin--a standard "patent success" story debunked
• "A Patent Success Story"--patent attorney retracts "success" example
• On Patenting Music and Patent Hypocrisy--exchange with Greg Aharonian about hypocrisy of those who implicitly claim the patent system is worth it but who refuse to engage on the issue

Other miscellaneous posts on IP:

• Patents v. Blackberry and Palm ... Enter: Google (November 7, 2006)
• Mor IP law "abuse": NFL Player Sends Mom Cease and Desist Letter for Using His Likeness (November 3, 2006)
• Britain's copyright laws, based on a 300-year-old statute, desperately need reshaping for the digital age (November 2, 2006)
• Some intimate details on the Google YouTube Deal (October 31, 2006)
• The "tolerated use" of copyrighted works (October 27, 2006)
• Richard Epstein on "The Structural Unity of Real and Intellectual Property" (October 4, 2006)
• Copyrights in Fashion Designs? (September 27, 2006)
• IP Imperialism (Russia, Intellectual Property , and the WTO) (September 22, 2006)
• Software Patents are not that harmful! (September 20, 2006)
• Patents and Utilitarian Thinking Redux: Stiglitz on using Prizes to Stimulate Innovation (September 19, 2006)
• Microsoft, Open Source Patents, and Incentives (September 15, 2006)
• Apple Pays Creative $100 Million To Settle Patent Suit (August 24, 2006)
• Patent Hypocrisy (August 2, 2006)
• Patent Rights Web Poll (July 31, 2006)
• Russian Free Trade and Patents (July 15, 2006)
• The Growing Anti-IP Movement (July 13, 2006)
• Intellectual Property: The New Backlash (July 11, 2006)
• Woops, sorry, Blackberry! (June 22, 2006)
• Battling the Copyright Monster (June 19, 2006)
• Heroic Pirates (June 12, 2006)
• Drug Patents and Welfare (May 31, 2006)
• Thoughts on Intellectual Property, Scarcity, Labor-ownership, Metaphors, and Lockean Homesteading (May 26, 2006)
• Objectivists on IP (May 3, 2006)
• Hope you don't like your DVR (April 14, 2006)
• Watch out, Gwyneth (Apple v. Apple) (March 29, 2006)
• Elaborations on Randian IP (January 5, 2006)
• The Quagmire of Intellectual Property (December 28, 2005)
• For Blackberry Users out there ... (December 1, 2005)
• Patents and Innovation (November 9, 2005)
• IP vs. Antitrust (September 8, 2005)
• Patents and Blood Cells (July 14, 2005)
• Copyright and Birthday Cakes (June 16, 2005)
• Heroic Google Fighting Copyright Morass (June 2, 2005)
• Copyright Gone Mad (April 14, 2005)
• Patents and Peanut Butter Sammiches (April 8, 2005)
• Big Blue Discovers New Way To Leverage Patents (April 8, 2005)
• There is No Such Thing As A Free Patent (March 6, 2005)
• Condemning Patents (February 27, 2005)
• Patents and Utilitarian Thinking (February 25, 2005)
• Copyright and Video Games (February 25, 2005)
• Improving Copyright Law: Baby Steps (February 24, 2005)
• Cato, Lessig, and Intellectual Property (January 31, 2005)
• Amazon and Poetic Justice (November 8, 2004)
• Copyright and Freedom of Speech (November 8, 2004)
• Intellectual Property at Mises.org (March 29, 2004)

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Anti-IP Resources

• Various materials are linked at Stephan Kinsella's IP Policy wiki.
• Non-normative IP law info can be found at Stephan Kinsella's PatentLawPractice wiki.
• Stephan Kinsella's IP writings, including especially: Against Intellectual Property (comprehensive libertarian case against IP); "There's No Such Thing as a Free Patent" (arguing that utilitarian advocates of patents have not met their burden of proof); "The Intellectual Property Quagmire, or, The Perils of Libertarian Creationism" (speech, 2008); "Yet Another Study Finds Patents Do Not Encourage Innovation" (collection of studies concluding IP does not accomplish its stated goals); "What are the Costs of the Patent System?" (estimate of the costs of the patent system); "$30 Billion Taxfunded Innovation Contracts: The 'Progressive-Libertarian' Solution" (disturbing arguments to use taxes to reward innovators); "How To Improve the Patent System" (forthcoming); "Intellectual Property and Libertarianism," a speech delivered at Mises University 2009, Auburn AL, July 30, 2009, adapted version forthcoming in Liberty magazine; "What Libertarianism Is," Mises Daily (August 21, 2009).

• Against Intellectual Monopoly, by economists Michele Boldrin and David Levine (a superb demolition of various utilitarian and practical arguments for IP).
• Economic and Game Theory Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine
• Jeff Tucker's excellent commentaries on Boldrin and Levine's Against Intellectual Monopoly.
• Against Monopoly blog, run by Boldrin and Levine.
• Intellectual Property Page, by Boldrin and Levine (various resources).
• Mike Masnick's frequent and excellent anti-IP commentary on Techdirt. Mike Masnick, "The Case For Patents Harming Innovation" (Techdirt).
• "The Libertarian Case Against Intellectual Property Rights," Roderick T. Long, Formulations 3, no. 1 (Autumn 1995) — an excellent, principled libertarian argument against IP.
• "Contra Copyright," by Wendy McElroy, The Voluntaryist (June 1985) — another excellent, principled libertarian attack on copyright.
• "Copyright and Patent in Benjamin Tucker's Periodical Liberty," by Wendy McElroy (from The Debates of Liberty: An Overview of Individualist Anarchism, 1881–1908 [2003]). "Perhaps the essence of Tucker's approach to intellectual property was best expressed when he exclaimed: 'You want your invention to yourself? Then keep it to yourself.'"

$8 $6
• "Intellectual Property: A Non-Posnerian Law and Economics Approach," Hamline Law Review 12 (1989) and "Are Patents and Copyrights Morally Justified? The Philosophy of Property Rights and Ideal Objects," Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 13, no. 3 (Summer 1990), by Tom Palmer (an excellent, principled libertarian case against IP; but see recent comments here and here in which the author seems to be retreating somewhat from his previously principled opposition to the wealth-maximization arguments for patents).
• "What Is Property," by Boudewijn Bouckaert, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 13, no. 3 (Summer 1990).
• Sheldon Richman on Intellectual Property versus Liberty (2009).
• Julio H. Cole's Patents and Copyrights: Do the Benefits Exceed the Costs?, Journal of Libertarian Studies 15, no. 4 (Fall 2001) and "Would the Absence of Copyright Laws Significantly Affect the Quality and Quantity of Literary Output?" The Journal of Markets and Morality 4, no. 1 (Spring 2001).
• Intellectual Property — A Libertarian Critique, by Kevin Carson (2009) (a left-libertarian approach).

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