Book Banning Courtesy of Copyright Law Posted by Stephan Kinsella on July 2, 2009 02:35 PM In Reason: Copyright Should Last Half A Century I mentioned libertarian writer Cathy Young’s advocacy of a 50-year copyright term in discussing the looming book-banning of a Catcher in the Rye sequel based on copyright. Well, the judge has […]
I just ordered this cool new teeshirt. Too bad this other one, “Hoppe is my Homeboy,” was never produced! (Someone did this mockup a while back on a facebook page.)
Great review of Hoppe’s The Economics and Ethics of Private Property (1993) by Walter Block. Block’s review was published in the Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, vol. 7, num 1, Mars. 1996, pp. 161-65.
The Incredible Abundance of the Market Posted by Stephan Kinsella on October 19, 2004 09:15 AM Last night, sitting on my mosquito-free back porch, having a bourbon and a cigar, listening to Rush, with my poodle at my feet, as my baby slept peacefully upstairs, phoning a few libertarian pals, late into the night as […]
A funny thread from years ago, which riled up the gadflies at a now-defunct site: Kinsella Wants To License Breeding; also spawned a thread on anti-state.com [pasted below]. The posts that sparked this. N.B.: of course I was not serious, but was making a point about children’s rights and parental responsibility (both moral and legal); […]
John Pilger traces the history of propaganda to Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, who invented the term "public relations". Bernays believed in "engineering public consent" and creating "false realties" as news. Here are examples of how this works today.
This is not the first time I write of Shalit, but it is the first time I would ever write of Hamid (the bedouin) my own uncle. No one would understand the Shalits’ sorrow and pain (specially the mother) but …
Update: See Karen DeCoster, Back to the Bullying Topic, and Mike Masnick, Rethinking Bullying: Kids Don’t See It As Bullying. From a series of posts on LewRockwell.com a few years back: Toward a Theory of Bullying Posted by Stephan Kinsella on September 30, 2003 11:48 AM Okay, that’s too grandiose a title. But as I […]
In Paul Allen: I Patented Silicon Valley Years Ago, Robert Wenzel, who claims to charge $750 for a 10 minute phone conversation, also claims he is going to write a book on his view of copyright and patent. His basic idea seems to be that some form of intellectual property right should be granted for […]
From Roderick Long’s blog: I just gave; please consider doing so. *** Guest Blogs by Brad Spangler and Kevin Carson PLAN B: Okay, It’s Time to Panic by Brad Spangler Dear Supporters of the Center for a Stateless Society, I blame myself. When we launched the month-plus long fundraising drive for combined July and August […]
Reading between the lines is a special art that needs the sixth sense to guess of what is untold, what is hidden deep behind the words, but the more important is to reconstruct (after deconstructing the elements into its basic …
In 1997-8, the suicide bombing operations that were done by the Palestinian uprising youths were at their top scale. The zionist society then was in horror anticipating when and where the next operation is going to happen. I remember at that time, late in the evening, a jewish friend came paranoid to my apartment in Ramallah, the West Bank. She got horridly into my room horrified and laid in my bed asking me to stay with me for a couple of days. Her face showed contours of horror as she spoke to me. I calmed her down and we sat …
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 8)
Topic:
Stefan Molyneux of
Freedomain Radio joins me to discuss the seemingly elusive nature of heroism.
Our discussion surveys a variety of historical topics as we examine how heroes are manufactured by our government education, while our own capacity for "heroism" is gradually diminished. We also explore the conjecture that government school's theft of our sense of personal power contributes to a desire to experience heroism only through fantasy.
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 8)Topic:Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio joins me to discuss the seemingly elusive nature of heroism.Our discussion surveys a variety of historical topics as we examine how heroes are manufactured by our government education, while our own capacity for "heroism" is gradually diminished. We also explore the conjecture that government school's theft of our sense of personal power contributes to a desire to experience heroism only through fantasy.Then, "heroism" gets a long overdue redefining.
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 8)
Topic:
Stefan Molyneux of
Freedomain Radio joins me to discuss the seemingly elusive nature of heroism.
Our discussion surveys a variety of historical topics as we examine how heroes are manufactured by our government education, while our own capacity for "heroism" is gradually diminished. We also explore the conjecture that government school's theft of our sense of personal power contributes to a desire to experience heroism only through fantasy.
My reply to a question re my article “Goods, Scarce and Nonscarce”: the questioner asked: Would contract that ask employee not to reveal secret production information about the firm where he work would be legal? Can contract protect firm from their employee about revealing nonscarce information? My view is the Evers-Rothbard title theory of contract […]
[Temporary revised version (pdf) prepared for the forthcoming Legal Foundations of a Free Society; to be updated upon publication] Jeff Tucker and I published “Goods, Scarce and Nonscarce” on Mises Daily today. This article examines the nature of nonscarce goods and their relationship to scarce goods and other fundamental economic concepts. This of course ties […]
The new book Strictly Confidential: The Private Volker Fund Memos of Murray N. Rothbard, edited by David Gordon looks great. I already found some gems: see chapter II.1 p. 25, “Are Libertarians ‘Anarchists'”? It has a devastating critique of anarcho-“syndicalists” and left-anarchists. A few delicious choice quotes: The spurious logic of the dialectic is not […]
From the introduction to Joseph Salerno’s new book Money: Sound and Unsound (PDF): Since these essays on the gold standard were published my view has changed on one issue of some importance. I am much more sympathetic now than I was when I wrote my essay on “The Gold Standard: An Analysis of Some Recent Proposals” (Chapter 14) […]
Critical Thinking Questions:
We are told in school that this "education" will open up the world to us and create endless options for our future. So why does it often feel like the world is being closed off and our options are being diminished?
Topic:
emergence (noun):
1. coming out of, passage out
2. a beginning
3. coming into sight
Please visit schoolsucksproject.com for full show notes, references and links.
Critical Thinking Questions:
We are told in school that this "education" will open up the world to us and create endless options for our future. So why does it often feel like the world is being closed off and our options are being diminished?
Topic:
emergence (noun):
1. coming out of, passage out
2. a beginning
3. coming into sight
Please visit schoolsucksproject.com for full show notes, references and links.
Critical Thinking Questions:We are told in school that this "education" will open up the world to us and create endless options for our future. So why does it often feel like the world is being closed off and our options are being diminished? Topic:emergence (noun):1. coming out of, passage out2. a beginning 3. coming into sightPlease visit schoolsucksproject.com for full show notes, references and links.
The original link to this piece is now dead, and is available only here, at Archive.org. [See Kinsella, ed., The Anti-IP Reader: Free Market Critiques of Intellectual Property (Papinian Press, 2023): Arnold Plant, The Economic Theory Concerning Patents for Inventions and The Economic Aspects of Copyright in Books (1934). To-wit: Arnold Plant, “The Economic Theory Concerning Patents for Inventions,” Economica, New […]
David Boaz’s Cato@Liberty piece, Beyond Toleration: George Washington’s View of Liberty, praises Washington, and concludes: Let us continue to work toward George Washington’s dream of a world in which “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” I am not inclined to […]
John Pilger describes the importance of Wikileaks as a new and fearless form of investigative journalism that threatens both the war-makers and their apologists, notably journalists who are state stenographers.
My reply: I made a similar point in my article There’s No Such Thing as a Free Patent. In fact there is no evidence to substantiate the utilitarian claim that IP is necessary for innovation or that it even generates net innovation and creativity. There is no doubt that patent and copyright distort and skew […]
The Superiority of the Roman Law: Scarcity, Property, Locke and Libertarianism (Mises, Aug. 17, 2010) (archived comments below) Update: see also: Legislation and the Discovery of Law in a Free Society, Journal of Libertarian Studies 11 (Summer 1995), p. 132 “Legislation and Law in a Free Society,” Mises Daily (Feb. 25, 2010) Classificationism, Legislation, Copyright, C4SIF (Oct. 25, 2011) […]
As a followup to various posts (The L. Neil Smith – FreeTalkLive Copyright Dispute (archived comments); Recent Blogposts on The Libertarian Standard and Mises Blog; Russell Madden’s “The Death Throes of Pro-IP Libertarianism”; Replies to Neil Schulman and Neil Smith re IP; see also Jeff Tucker, L. Neil Smith on IP), I see Smith has posted another […]
My reply to this post: Net neutrality is indeed unlibertarian and should be opposed, as I noted in Net Neutrality Developments; see also Geoff Plauche’s CrunchGear vs. the Tea Party on Net Neutrality. However, as TLF is commendably “dedicated to keeping politicians’ hands off the ‘net and everything else related to technology” — we should also oppose intellectual […]
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 7)
Topic:
Dr. Bruce Levine joins me to discuss his article,
How Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness.
It turns out that pathologizing or "diseasing" rebellious behavior is not a new trick for those who hold tenuous power over others.
Please visit schoolsucksproject.com for full show notes, references and links.
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 7)
Topic:
Dr. Bruce Levine joins me to discuss his article,
How Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness.
It turns out that pathologizing or "diseasing" rebellious behavior is not a new trick for those who hold tenuous power over others.
Please visit schoolsucksproject.com for full show notes, references and links.
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 7)Topic:Dr. Bruce Levine joins me to discuss his article, How Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness.It turns out that pathologizing or "diseasing" rebellious behavior is not a new trick for those who hold tenuous power over others.Please visit schoolsucksproject.com for full show notes, references and links.
Panelist, “Intellectual Property Law and Policy,” Symposium: “Plain Meaning in Context: Can Law Survive its Own Language?”, New York University School of Law/Journal of International Law and Politics (February 18, 2011) “How Intellectual Property Hampers Capitalism,” Mises Institute Supporters’ Summit 2010: “The Economic Recovery: Washington’s Big Lie” (forthcoming Oct. 8-9 2010, Auburn Alabama) “Intellectual Freedom […]
Continually updated list… (work in progress) See also my post “Examples of Ways Content Creators Can Profit Without Intellectual Property” You Hate all these Companies for the SAME Reason and Creators SHOULDN’T Own their Creations Kinsella, That Screwy, Ballyhooey Nollywood, C4SIF Mike Masnick, “The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There) Culture,” Techdirt (Jan. […]
From some comments in Seinfeld’s Elaine is Anti-IP: Jay Lakner July 26, 2010 at 11:24 pm Ok let’s try this again, but with a different approach. An author, let’s called him Adam, wishes to sell his book but he only wants official copies to be in circulation. His intent is to prevent people from duplicating […]
Notes Wikipedia: “Ancient Greece Athenaeus, writing in the third century CE, mentions that in 500 BC, in the Greek city of Sybaris (located in what is now southern Italy), there were annual culinary competitions. The victor was given the exclusive right to prepare his dish for one year.” It is no wonder they had such […]
Not including English. I decided recently to split off links to translations of my publications onto a separate page. Turns out, so far, they’ve been translated into eight languages: Dutch, Georgian, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
John Pilger writes about the "paramount war crime" defined by the Nuremberg judges in 1946 and its relevance to the case of Tony Blair, whose shared responsibility for the Iraq invasion resulted in the deaths of more than a million people. New developments in international and domestic political attitudes towards war crimes mean that Blair is now 'Britain's Kissinger'.
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 6)
Topic:
There is a phrase, "hole in the soul," that describes how a person may feel incomplete, unworthy, or dependent on external things. While much of this is probably rooted in family, I believe that school can contribute to one's sense of personal emptiness.
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 6)
Topic:
There is a phrase, "hole in the soul," that describes how a person may feel incomplete, unworthy, or dependent on external things. While much of this is probably rooted in family, I believe that school can contribute to one's sense of personal emptiness.
(Kids Are Not Defective Part 6)Topic:There is a phrase, "hole in the soul," that describes how a person may feel incomplete, unworthy, or dependent on external things. While much of this is probably rooted in family, I believe that school can contribute to one's sense of personal emptiness.This is a long and winding show that covers a valedictorian's brave and moving graduation speech, leading into a discussion of the problems created for all students by the carrots and sticks of school.
My comment on “Citizen Science, Microfinanced Research, Patent Trolls, and Pharma Prizes: A final dispatch from the Open Science Summit,” by Ronald Bailey on Reason Online. Stephan Kinsella|8.3.10 @ 11:12PM|# Bailey characterizes the anti-IP “faction” as the “more egalitarian” one, as opposed to the more libertarian bloc at the summit. Yet libertarianism is, in my […]
The Acton Institute is now offering Digital Downloads of the MP3 files of its Acton University Lectures–for only a couple bucks each! Wow!<sarcasm off> Contrast this to things like podcasting; iTunes U; and the Mises Institute’s wildly popular and successful 21st Century open-information approach (Doug French, “The Intellectual Revolution Is in Process“; Jeff Tucker, “A […]
[Update: See also Brian Doherty, “Intellectual Property: Dying Among Libertarians?” (Reason, 2010)] Re this article Stephan Kinsella|8.2.10 @ 10:10PM|# [reposted to correct formatting error] Brian, thanks for the plug. This piece was not meant to set out the case for IP but to discuss how and why the tide has been turning against IP among […]
That I did not cross-post here: Stefan Molyneux’s “Libertarian Parenting” Series Stefan Molyneux, of Freedomain Radio, has recently had a very interesting series of interviews on “libertarian parenting”. The three guests (so far?) were me, my fellow TLS blogger Gil Guillory, and just today, David Friedman. The MP3s for the first two, and the YouTube videos […]
Tom Palmer links to the written version of his 5 minute opening remarks at Mark Skousen’s FreedomFest earlier this month, “The Case for Ordered Liberty Without States.” Although he doesn’t like to use the term “anarchist” (see also Gil Guillory, Libertarians or Anarchists?), this is a nice short argument for the anarcho-libertarian position. [TLS]
From the Mises blog; archived comments below. Watch Importation, Copyright, and the First-Sale Doctrine In Cutting edges, blogger Peter Gordon relates a fascinating case where Swiss watchmaker Omega found a brilliantly evil trick using IP law to crack down on innocent market activity. Omega sells its watches for far less money in some countries than in […]
Roger Ebert, Mark Kermode (BBC), and Dana Stevens (Slate). I have spoken.
I received today a nice note from Joakim Kämpe of the Mises Institute–Sweden that two of my articles had been translated into Swedish: my 2004 LRC piece, What It Means To Be an Anarcho-Capitalist, which had already been translated into Dutch, Spanish, and Polish (the Swedish translation is Vad det innebär att vara en anarko-kapitalist), […]
My article, “The Death Throes of Pro-IP Libertarianism,” was published on Mises Daily today. Also published today on Mises Daily is a reprint of Wendy McElroy’s great, classic “Copyright and Patent in Benjamin Tucker’s Periodical Liberty.” *** Amusing: on the “Christian Pipe Smokers” site (hunh?), one guy links to my article and says “This is […]
