Comments on: Property, Intellectual Property and Free Riding

Property, Intellectual Property and Free Riding

elpapacito — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 07:20:14 -0800

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.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 07:35:44 -0800

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.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:09:52 -0800

Working Wikipedia Link. Pretty interesting stuff so far!

By: Kwantsar

Kwantsar — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:49:28 -0800

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.

By: hob

hob — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 10:20:40 -0800

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).