Property 

A case against intellectual property 
copyrights and their flawn conceptualization


a scientist cannot possibly consider copyrights a type of property as no devoted scholar can deny the appeal of IP in general detaching from the very core of the foundational doctrine on private property. IP property is a fiction, it is acceptable because of random, arbitrary legislative decision making processes.

property cannot be created

rights are not free. They come from something else. When you have a set of rights allocated and you start giving out more rights, they have to start chipping into the previous ones recognized. They have to come from something else. Rights and obligations are correlative. If you have a right to education or welfare, someone’s got to provide it. They have to provide it out of their property. So recognizing “new” rights just amounts to a redistribution of property.  It’s the same thing with intellectual property, which is nothing but a redistribution of rights. It is a redistribution of property rights from the original owner of a thing, to someone who applied at a state agency for some kind of monopoly certificate that gives them the right to go to government courts to ask the court to point their guns at the original owner and tell them “you have to share your property with this guy, or you can’t use it in this way without this guy’s permission.” It is a way of redistributing property rights. The idea that you can just add IP rights to the set of property rights in scarce resources is a pernicious one that leads to redistribution of control that owners have over their property, to other people.

relevance




It is the digital age 
Network society
The perils of developed states
Supranational interest prescribing policy and laws
Need to fuel economic growth 




why property rights appeared

Background on an Intellectual Property (IP) position

Property as a personality attribute

Patrimonial-extrapatrimonial
Public-private
Join-common-public domain
Real-subjective
Tangible-intangible
Generic-specific
Movables-inmovables
Fungible-non-fungible
Consumables-non-consumables
Principal-accessorial
Rivalrious-non-rivalrious (common law)

Patrimonial-extrapatrimonial


Real-subjective

 


fungible-non fungible 



consumables-non consumables 


Tangible-intangible

 




stretching the concepts



Intellectual property and other misconceptions

Evolution

(civilization, values)


freedom

Lockean view on the dignity of life by owning (leading to terrible misconceptions; consider the adding of value to things)


(absurdity of unrestrained ownership)

economy

Rationalization


peace

Certainty

governing

The ruler shoudl be able to regulate people on the basis of their relationships wit things


mainteinance

Owners assist the state in preserving things


but iP

Censorship and State control 
Sublimized incentive
Economic growth


property rights


Exclusive entitlement to control scarce resources. 
"The best right."


We, SUBJECTS own, OBJECTS, because we can exercise rights and be responsible of duties...

intellectual property regulatory systems

Formal 
Laws and public policy
International level: WIPO, TRIPS, IIPI, etc
National level: Laws and statutes (civil law branch and expanding)
Informal
Culture manifestations (traditions, beliefs, attitudes, practices, habits, etc.)

related concepts

  • Knowledge
  • Information
  • Learning (informing our freedoms)
  • Moral rights, authorship and identity
  • First sale doctrine
  • Fair use
  • Compulsory licensing
  • Incentives
  • Enforcement
  • Balance
  • Policy

Eu copyright reform


2012: Commitment to "ensure that Copyright stays fit for purpose in this new digital context."
Relaunch of the Single Market; Agenda for growth: "SSI"

2013: Open consultation concerning reforms. "Deplorable in its overall orientation...passing over crucial issues on everyone's interests"

2014: Closed consultation (record participation +11.000 responses) 

!!!


What the Commission literally promised:

To "...work for a modern copyright framework that guarantees effective recognition and remuneration of rights holders in order to provide  sustainable incentives for creativity, cultural diversity and innovation; opens up greater access and a wider choice of legal offers to end users; allows new business models to emerge; and contributes to combating illegal offers and piracy."

Recommendation number one



Accurate education on what property rights mean and their personal and social implications.
-Freedoms to all
-Harmony in trade


and on reform activism

"The Recognition of non-commercial sharing between
individuals through the exhaustion of rights."

The most controversial of all issues on copyright legislation continues being ignored despite 15 years of struggle; and 30 of informal practice (tolerated  to a greater or lesser degree)

See further:


Property 

By mtalyc

Property 

Background. Lockean/Libertarian views

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