KOL108 | “Why ‘Intellectual Property’ is not Genuine Property,” Adam Smith Forum, Moscow (2011)

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 108. This was my (remotely delivered) presentation, “Why Intellectual Property is not Genuine Property,” at the 3rd Adam Smith Forum, Moscow, Russia (Nov. 12, 2011). As I noted in a previous post, this event was held Nov. 12, 2011 in Moscow. It was organized by the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, the Libertarian Party of Russia, and others. The Chairman of the ASF Steering Committee was economist Pavel Usanov, head of the Hayek Institute for Economy and Law, and Andrey Shal'nev, head of the federal committee of the Libertarian Party of Russia, was its co-chairman. I was invited to speak but could not attend in person, so my 47-minute speech "Why Intellectual Property is not Genuine Property" was presented remotely, with Russian subtitles. It is below, along with the original version and the English transcript plus the Russian translation, which was prepared by Maxim Tulenin, head of the Moscow branch of the Libertarian Party of Russia. Pictures from the event are here. The program with the list of speakers and topics is here (English translation). Tulenin told me after the event: I'm head of the Moscow branch of the Libertarian Party of Russia and I did the translation of your very consistent and convincing video lecture into Russian. Let me thank you, on behalf of the steering committee, Andrey Shal'nev and the participants for your contribution to the Forum, it was a great success with the audience, especially with the younger generation. I also tip my hat to you for the analytic case you've made against "intellectual property" because it has provided me with a pattern of argumentation suitable for my own Internet debates. One of the participants in the Forum provided a brief overview of my talk (rough English translation). The Forum's promo video excerpt, with Russian subtitles, is below, followed by the subtitled version presented at the Forum; the original version of my speech (without subtitles) follows these. The audio file is here. The English transcript is below; a Russian translation which was used for subtitles for the version presented at the Forum. The powerpoint presentation I used is also streamed below. Youtube: Vimeo version: Stephan Kinsella speech at IIIrd Adam Smith Forum from ivangoe on Vimeo: Stephan Kinsella's speech at the IIIrd Adam Smith Forum from ivangoe on Vimeo. Alternative youtube version: https://youtu.be/Hl4EM7fJUd4 Slides: TRANSCRIPT Why “Intellectual Property” is not Genuine Property Stephan Kinsella Libertarian Papers, C4SIF.org Adam Smith Forum Moscow November 12, 2011 (Edited transcript) Abstract: Intellectual property rights, or IP—primarily patent and copyright—has long been viewed as a legitimate type of property right by libertarians and other defenders of capitalism and free markets. I argue that IP rights are not genuine property rights, and that these laws should be abolished. This issue is relevant to Russia and Adam Smith Forum members because of the pressure by the US on Russia and other countries to adopt western-style patent and copyright law. But the west has attempted to export many other laws and policies to other nations, many of which are not compatible with a free market, such as antitrust (competition), antibribery, tax, narcotics, and central banking laws and practices. In this talk I provide an overview of the nature of patent and copyright, followed by a discussion of the nature and purpose of law and property rights in a world of scarcity. I argue that property rights apply to scarce resources only, to permit such resources to be used peacefully, productively, and cooperatively as a means of action. However, property rights make no sense are in fact perverse and undermine genuine property rights when the law attempt to apply them to information, ideas, and knowledge. Property rights must be granted in scarce resources and only in scarce resources if we are to have prosperity, freedom, and progress in science. In fact, state IP rights are not genuine property rights, but are instead neo-mercantilist monopoly grants of privilege that protect favored recipients from competition. This enriches the patentees and copyright holders, and the state, but at the expense of consumers and competitors. I also provide an overview of the history of opposition to IP law, identifying four key historical phases beginning around 1850. I conclude the talk by observing that IP reform cannot work; the only solution is complete abolition of patent and copyright. *** Good evening. This is Stephan Kinsella. I am speaking from Houston. I would like to say good evening, or good morning, in Moscow at the Adam Smith Forum. I would like to thank Andrey Shalnev, the head of the steering committee, for this invitation to speak remotely. I am sorry I cannot be there in person, but I hope that you will find this video presentation and speech of interest. My name is Stephan Kinsella. I am a patent attorney and a libertarian writer in Houston, Texas, in the United States, and editor of the journal Libertarian Papers. I have been a practicing patent attorney since 1994. I have been writing in opposition to patent and copyright law since about 1995. The topic of my speech today is “Why Intellectual Property is not Genuine Property”. I would like to emphasize that intellectual property has been viewed as a type of property right for over a century now, as part of the western or capitalist free market system. Now, I did mention that I am a libertarian. And in particular, I am a Rothbardian Austrian economist following libertarian principles, and an anarcho-capitalist. And as a libertarian and an Austrian, I am in favor of property rights and in free markets and in capitalism, if it is rightly understood. I will say I am not in favor of capitalism in the sense of corporatism or the type of cozying up between Western big corporations and the state as we see here in the United States in the West nowadays. That is a corruption of the ideal form of the free market economy or capitalism. But I am in favor of property rights. So the first question might be: why is someone who is in favor of free markets and property rights, and a patent attorney himself, which is me, oppose patent and copyright law, so-called intellectual property law? In this talk, I would like to explain why I believe that intellectual property, primarily patent and copyright law, are not genuine property rights and why these laws actually should be abolished and why the Western style, the American type, of patent and copyright should not be adopted in China, Russia, India, and other countries in the world. By the way, I have a presentation which I have done which I will have sent to the Forum. I don’t know if they will show it along with this speech, but you are free to access it from my website at C4SIF.org (Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom), the site for my research center. Or at my personal site: StephanKinsella.com. Let me explain quickly one reason why I think this is particularly relevant--this topic of justifying or discussing the legitimacy of intellectual property law--to Russia and the Adam Smith Forum itself. These issues are of particular interest to the Adam Smith Forum because the members of the Adam Smith Forum are also advocates, like Austrians, of free markets and property rights. Also because the Western powers, led by the United States, are continually pushing emerging powers in the former socialist countries, like Russia, to adopt United States or Western style IP law, particularly patent and copyright. They have done this through the WIPO, through the WTO (World Trade Organization), the United Nations, and also through recent and continuing copyright and patent treaties and trade agreements, like the recently signed ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). So let me make it clear. As a libertarian, as a free market and a property rights advocate, we should not make the mistake of equating the American government’s laws and policies with a free market order. And therefore we should not believe that just because the American state, our government, proposes or pushes a given law or policy and tries to urge other countries to adopt it, does not mean this is actually a capitalist or a free market or a libertarian property right. In fact, it is a mistake to equate the American state with the American economy. The American economy is at least somewhat free market even though it is a mixed economy, but the state itself, like all states, is inherently socialistic. In fact, you can think of many examples of policies and laws that the West has paternalistically pushed on other countries. We have tried to export our own laws and policies to other countries. We have been somewhat successful in doing this, unfortunately. These policies would include income tax withholding--which actually was adopted during World War II in the United States at the urging of the “free market” economist Milton Friedman, which I believe he admitted later was a mistake--the American version of anti-trust law, or so called competition law, anti-bribery laws… The American state pushed this law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act onto the economy in the 1980s, I believe, which prohibited private bribes by American companies to private companies overseas; this is an un-libertarian and illiberal law, but it hurt American businesses compared to their European and other counterparts who were not prohibited from engaging in these customary local bribes. In fact, in some countries you can even deduct that from your taxes as a legitimate business expense. Instead of withdrawing this harmful law, the United States has twisted the arms of other countries into adopting a world-wide treaty on corruption and bribery to get other countries to impose similar restrictions on their citizens.