KOL172 | “Rethinking Intellectual Property: History, Theory, and Economics: Lecture 1: History and Law” (Mises Academy, 2011)

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 172.

This is the first of 6 lectures of my 2011 Mises Academy course “Rethinking Intellectual Property: History, Theory, and Economics” (Tuesdays, Mar. 22-April 26, 2011; discussed on the Mises Blog in Study with Kinsella Online and in Rethinking Intellectual Property: Kinsella’s Mises Academy Online Course). I’ll release the remaining lectures here in the podcast feed in upcoming days.

The slides for the first lecture of this course are provided below, as are the “suggested readings” for the course. The course and other matters are discussed in further detail here. I also include in this first of the 6 podcasts for this series an introductory video for the course followed by the audio and slides for all 6 lectures. The “suggested readings” for each lecture are appended to the end of this post. I’ll include individual audio and slides for the following podcasts in this series.

Introductory video from the Mises Blog post Kinsella Can Be Your Professor:

Lecture 1: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN HISTORY

Lecture 2: OVERVIEW OF JUSTIFICATIONS FOR IP; PROPERTY, SCARCITY, AND IDEAS

Lecture 3: EXAMINING THE UTILITARIAN CASE FOR IP

Lecture 4: IP STATUTES AND TREATIES; OVERVIEW OF JUSTIFICTIONS FOR IP; PROPERTY, SCARCITY AND IDEAS; RIGHTS-BASED ARGUMENTS FOR IP: CREATION AS A SOURCE OF RIGHTS

Lecture 5: PROPERTY, SCARCITY, AND IDEAS; EXAMINING RIGHTS-BASED ARGUMENTS FOR IP

Lecture 6: THE FUTURE; INTEGRATING IP THEORY WITH AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS AND LIBERTARIAN THEORY; PROPOSED REFORMS; IMAGINING A POST-IP WORLD; THE FUTURE OF OPEN VS. CLOSED

SUGGESTED READING MATERIAL

The “suggested readings” for each lecture are appended below. The links were internal Mises Academy links so would not work here, and I had no time to add individual links for all of them, but until I find time to code in the links, most of these materials can be found on stephankinsella.com/publications, c4sif.org/resources, mises.org, hanshoppe.com/publications, or on Wikipedia or by google search. (If there is a particular link you cannot find online, email me or add to the comments, and I’ll try to find it and update the post with that link.)

Main Texts

• Kinsella, Against Intellectual Property (AIP)
• Boldrin & Levine, Against Intellectual Monopoly (AIM)

LECTURE 1: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN HISTORY

• Legal Background:

• AIP, pp. 9-14

• Copyright Basics (US Copyright Office) URL
• Copyright overview (LII/Cornell) URL
• Patent law overview (LII/Cornell) URL
• Patent introductory information (Ladas & Parry) URL
• US Patent law information (USPTO) URL

• AIM, ch. 2, pp. 33-35 (“World Before Copyright” section); ch. 3, pp. 48-51 (“World Without Patent” section).

• AIP, pp. 9-14
• Statute of Anne (Wikipedia) URL
• Stationers’ Company (Wikipedia) URL
• History of patent law (Wikipedia) URL
• Letters Patent (Wikipedia) URL
• Statute of Monopolies 1624 (Wikipedia) URL

• Krummenacker, Are “Intellectual Property Rights” Justified? (Historical Origins section)
• Palmer, Intellectual Property: A Non-Posnerian Law and Economics Approach (pp. 264-71)
• A Brief History of the Patent Law of the United States (Ladas & Parry)

LECTURE 2: OVERVIEW OF JUSTIFICATIONS FOR IP; PROPERTY, SCARCITY, AND IDEAS

• Defamation (Wikipedia)–beginning to Section 5 only
• Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy

• Machlup, “An Economic Review of the Patent System” [pp. 2-5]

• Machlup & Penrose, “The Patent Controversy in the Nineteenth Century,” [pp. 2-6, et pass.]
• Frumkin, “The Origin of Patents“

• AIP, pp. 19-23

• AIM, ch. 7, esp. pp. 176-201
• Kinsella, There’s No Such Thing as a Free Patent
• Machlup, “An Economic Review of the Patent System” [pp. 19-26 et seq., et pass.]
• Machlup & Edith Penrose, “The Patent Controversy in the Nineteenth Century,” pp. 7-28
• Hurt & Schuchman, “The Economic Rationale of Copyright“

• AIP, pp. 23-28

• Ayn Rand Lexicon-Patents and Copyrights URL
• Ayn Rand Lexicon-Production URL

• Dale Halling, Ayn Rand on Intellectual Property URL
• Kinsella, Comment to “Galambos and Other Nuts” URL
• Machlup & Edith Penrose, “The Patent Controversy in the Nineteenth Century,” pp. 7-28 URL
• Greg Perkins, Don’t Steal This Article! URL
• Kinsella, Objectivists: “All Property is Intellectual Property” URL
• Kinsella, Inventors are Like Unto … GODS … URL
• Hurt & Schuchman, “The Economic Rationale of Copyright” URL

• Tucker & Kinsella, “Goods, Scarce and Nonscarce“

• AIP, pp. 28-42

• Kinsella, “Intellectual Property and the Structure of Human Action“
• Boudewijn Bouckaert, “What Is Property?“
• Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism, chs. 1 & 2 (esp. pp. 13-15, 18-30); p. 158 & p. 158n120, et pass.

LECTURE 3: EXAMINING THE UTILITARIAN CASE FOR IP

• Patent Troll email response Page
• Hidden from students: Patent Troll email response URL
• Patent Trolls and Empirical Thinking URL
• Facebook Threatened by a Non-Patent Troll URL

• Once Again, the Copyright/Trademark Tail Tries to Wag the Internet Dog

LECTURE 4:  IP STATUTES AND TREATIES; OVERVIEW OF JUSTIFICTIONS FOR IP; PROPERTY, SCARCITY AND IDEAS; RIGHTS-BASED ARGUMENTS FOR IP: CREATION AS A SOURCE OF RIGHTS

• Outrages: See following recent C4SIF entries: Hershey Claims Ownership of Orange, Brown and Tan Candy Wrappings; UK High Court Ruling Implies Headlines Are Copyright; Universities attacking high schools over trademarks; EFF rescues ASL Ally’s sign-langu URL

• Photography and the law URL
• Key IP Statutes and Treaties

LECTURE 5: PROPERTY, SCARCITY, AND IDEAS; EXAMINING RIGHTS-BASED ARGUMENTS FOR IP

LECTURE 6: THE FUTURE; INTEGRATING IP THEORY WITH AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS AND LIBERTARIAN THEORY;
PROPOSED REFORMS; IMAGINING A POST-IP WORLD; THE FUTURE OF OPEN VS. CLOSED

• See recent postings on C4SIF.org (since Dec. 8) URL

• Kinsella, “Mises on Intellectual Property“ URL
• Hayek and Rothbard references in “Other Publications and Resources” section URL

• A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, pp. 30-33 URL
• Kinsella, “Locke on IP; Mises, Rothbard, and Rand on Creation, Production, and “Rearranging”” URL

• AIP, pp. 45-55 (IP as Contract)

• Kinsella, “Reply to Van Dun: Non-Aggression and Title Transfer,” pp. 59-63 URL

• Kinsella, “Reducing the Cost of IP Law,” URL

• Kinsella, “Innovations that Thrive without IP URL
• Kinsella, “Funding for Creation and Innovation in an IP-Free World ” URL
• Kinsella, “The Creator-Endorsed Mark as an Alternative to Copyright” URL

• Property Title Records and Insurance in a Free Society