I would be wary of taking that book at its word. The authors have an agenda and they are not afraid to twist historical facts to suit their narrative. I mean, their very first chapter begins with a lie which perpetuates the myth that Watt's patent retarded steam development [1]. When the authors of [1] called out Boldrin and Levine on this, the latter responded by fabricating new myths rather than admit that the truth undermined their narrative [2]. The very chapter you cite itself has such inaccuracies. I did not track down all the stuff they cite, but I did find an instance of…
Good reference, thanks. I would add, for those that haven't read the Boldrin/Levine link yet, it only starts off with the myth of the lone inventor, but ultimately tackles the modern pharmaceutical industry as well, which is probably the more modern intellectual monopoly defense. "It is often argued that the best case for patents is in the pharmaceutical industry. The fixed cost of innovation is large, with estimates of the average cost of bringing a single new drug to market as high as $800 million in current dollars... Indeed, according to industry surveys, the only industry in which…
Thanks for your thoughtful posts on this topic. I can only agree when you say that "copyright is a key part of many forms of commercial activity whose nature is not changed by the Internet and whose deep-seated roots require the continuation of copyright" - however, it seems this begs the question whether society wouldn't be as likeable without those forms of commerce, and with others in their place? I think you're right that in a world of weaker IP, Pixar wouldn't have happened, for want of capital. However, Toy Story might still have happened - perhaps it would have taken a few years more,…
I've just read this in "Against intellectual monopoly" page 296 ( http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstfi... ) : Social norms are not a topic in which we are especially expert. Still, it is a relevant topic: property rights are never enforced only by the law-and-order system, or even by costly private monitoring of other people's behavior. Broadly accepted and well functioning property rights systems rest also, one is tempted to write "primarily," on a commonly shared sense of morality. Then it quotes another economist, Eric Rasmusen : Video rental stores and…
> The claim in the article isn't that nobody would > write and perform music without copyright, but that > there would be less of it, and that it would be of > lower quality. That's an arbitrary claim. There's no evidence of it. You can't produce evidence because we don't know what the opportunity cost of all this enforcement is. > Authors and game designers There's plenty of opportunities for them too. Read _Against Intellectual Monopoly_ by Boldrin/Levine from page 22. The section ends, "SO we can realistically conclude that if J K Rowling were forced…
The story of patents holding up steam is a myth, one that I believe was more recently spread by Boldrin & Levine's "Against Intellectual Monopoly" book. Here is a paper comprehensively busting that myth: http://terry.uga.edu/~jlturner/StrongSteamApril2009.pdf. TLDR: Steam did take off after Watt's patents expired, but there is no causality because his patents claimed the condenser, which works in the exact opposite manner as the "expansive" use of high pressure steam. High-pressure steam languished initially because it was extremely risky. Ironically, Watt's patents probably encouraged work…
It is an unwarranted assumption that patents actually increase promiscuity of ideas. Rather, patents probably impedes the progress of industries as varied as steam engines and software. There is at least two economists in the world who dispute patents and copyright having place in the natural order of the free market: Examine the evidence and decide for yourself: It is common to argue that intellectual property in the form of copyright and patent is necessary for the innovation and creation of ideas and inventions such as machines, drugs, computer software, books, music, literature and…
Sounding off on blogs definitely furthers the momentum for change but a lot more would be needed to effect a change of view on issues that are so deeply rooted in U.S. history and legal tradition. So long as this remains primarily an ideological position of the free/open software movement, and nothing more, it will likely languish along with the old Jeffersonian sentiment that today sounds so quaintly out of date. I am not saying this in a patronizing way. For something to come of this besides just sounding off, a major shift in mindset has to occur in society generally, and I don't see any…
In the interest of raising the intellectual property debate beyond tired old arguments that HN readers has been making for the past 15 threads or so, once again, I urges everyone to read Against Intellectual Monopoly at http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstfi... It is common to argue that intellectual property in the form of copyright and patent is necessary for the innovation and creation of ideas and inventions such as machines, drugs, computer software, books, music, literature and movies. In fact intellectual property is a government grant of a costly and dangerous…
Why Software Patents are Bad, Period. https://caseymuratori.com/blog_0027 Patents are out of control, and they’re hurting innovation https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/patents-are-out-of-control... Economic and Game Theory Against Intellectual Monopoly https://web.archive.org/web/20120121014753/https://levine.ss... PATENTS AND INNOVATION IN ECONOMIC HISTORY https://gwern.net/doc/economics/2016-moser.pdf Historical record shows how intellectual property systematically slowed down innovation https://web.archive.org/web/20140306012646/http://blog.p2pfo... Criticism of…