IP and the individual: does man act alone? Are "rights" personal or a group solution to a common problem?
I wish to make note of a brief comment thread in the blog comments to Stephan Kinsella‘s October 22 Mises Daily post, Rethinking Intellectual Property: History, Theory, and Economics:
Artistic aspects aside, what galls me about patents is simply this, viewed from a universal evolutionary perspective: Once any organism , human not excluded, has acquired knowledge that will advance his prospects for survival, it is unreasonable to expect him to unlearn it. Nor is it reasonable to prohibit him from using it to advance his prospects for survival and procreation.
October 26, 2010 at 1:38 am
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What you and others in this discussion miss, Mushindo, is that humans live and work in often-competing groups. Groups have always tried to preserve competitive advantage by limiting the access by outsiders to valuable [resources, including] “inside” information. A focus on individuals misses a large aspect of the dynamics at play here.
TT
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