Property, Intellectual Property and Free Riding

September 10, 2004 7:20 AM

My cattle grazing grounds are not my idea and vice versa. But thanks to laws I can "own" the idea as if the idea was a cow ; link goes to a interesting university-level paper [PDF]. The author makes some interesting analysis and points attention to the fact that current intellectual property laws can go against well established economic theories at the expense of free market competition theory, technical innovations and society-as-a-whole best interest.

Recommended to people with economic theory experience , but also to everyday public-goods-privatization opposers as the paper isn't (intentionally) way too technical.
posted by elpapacito (4 comments total)

For people not at ease with the concept of extenalities I recommend this Wikipedia article which does a pretty good job at explaining.
It'sa good reading even if you don't give a damn about intellectual property and are more concerned about everyday problems. For instance, your neighbors leave the trash out the door and that smells foul ; there's no money involved, but you're paying their trashy habits by feeling the bed smell and not receiving anything in compensation , that's an externality with an hidden cost.
posted by elpapacito at 7:35 AM on September 10, 2004

Working Wikipedia Link.

Pretty interesting stuff so far!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:09 AM on September 10, 2004

It's interesting that a law school prof is handling the topic from a standpoint of utility, rather than justice. His tacit endorsement of Coase's immoral economic calculus (pg 13) is even more disturbing.
posted by Kwantsar at 8:49 AM on September 10, 2004

As was pointed out in last night's episode of Philosophy Talk with guest Alan Derschowitz, "justice" is simply "rule" utilitarianism (as opposed to "case" or "act" utilitarianism).
posted by hob at 10:20 AM on September 10, 2004