Download: “Intellectual Property”: A Libertarian Critique I. The Ethics of “Intellectual Property” II. Privilege as Economic Irrationality III. “Intellectual Property” and the Structure of the American Domestic Economy IV. “Intellectual Property” and the Global Economy V. “Intellectual Property,” Business Models and Product Design VI. Is “Intellectual Property” a Necessary Incentive? “Intellectual property” is a contentious issue among libertarians. Among the individualist anarchists alone,…

The modern libertarian case against so-called intellectual property (IP) has been building steadily since the late 1980s, when I first encountered it. Since then, an impressive volume of work has been produced from many perspectives: economics, political economy, sociology, moral and political philosophy, history, and no doubt more. It is indeed a case to be…

The strongest argument in favor of the fiction of “intellectual property” is consequential rather than moral: Creators of good things — novels, songs, drugs, what have you — we are told, will essentially go on strike if government doesn’t guarantee their profits by vesting them with monopoly “rights” to ideas. Instead of writing that next…

From the Markets Not Capitalism audiobook read by C4SS fellow Stephanie Murphy.

Knapp: By its very nature, “intellectual property” always represents an assertion on the part of one person of ownership title to the minds, bodies and property of others.

Knapp: The old media companies’ only chance of survival is to give up their failed state-created monopolies and protection rackets, and figure out how to generate profits through voluntary trade instead.

Intellectual property is not necessary to encourage innovation, this means that its main practical effect is to cause economic inefficiency by levying a monopoly charge on the use of existing technology.

For every copy of Kevin Carson’s “Intellectual Property is Theft!” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage.

Intellectual property rights have a tainted past. Originally, both patents and copyrights were grants of monopoly privilege pure and simple.

Kevin Carson on the globalist imperialism of copyright tyranny.

Kevin Carson on the human cost of “intellectual property”.

Kevin Carson tackles the fanciful notion of file sharing being a cash cow for Al Qaeda.

Kevin Carson explains why attempts to defend intellectual property inevitably undermine intellectual property.

Kevin Carson on IP advocates stooping to incoherent self-contradiction.

Kevin Carson: “Intellectual property” is the linchpin, the keystone in the arch, of global corporate power.

In this study, Kevin Carson reviews libertarian perspectives on “intellectual property”; the ethics of the practice itself and the harms resulting from it.

View or download a PDF copy of Kevin Carson’s C4SS Study: Capitalist Nursery Fables: The Tragedy of Private Property, and the Farce of Its Defense Traduzione italiana, I Miti del Capitalismo: La tragedia della proprietà privata e la farsa della sua difesa Introduction Since the beginning of class society, every ruling class has required a…

Most political economy discussions are about crafting contemporary policy responses, such as increasing or lowering tax rates, setting regulatory bodies to enforce labor laws, and other similar center-left and center-right electoral issues, with a class of think tank staffers and media pundits arguing back and forth. In this discussion almost all political fundamentals are agreed…

A common cliche among conservatives and those on the libertarian Right is that “strong property rights” are an incentive to create wealth and are necessary for progress. Closely related is Ludwig von Mises’ critique of the Oskar Lange model of market socialism, namely that it would result in irrationality because factor input pricing by non-market…

The Organic Emergence of Property from Reputation Property as a Useful and Necessary Toil, Not a God For centuries radicals have debated alternative property systems, and I’m glad we’re having these conversations. But what has been consistently disappointing about them is how little they generally seek to explore the underlying roots of “property” itself. To be sure, all…