Intellectual Property - The Root of All Evil | Stephan Kinsella
Channel: The Truth Archive
Date: 2019-06-24

“Copyright [and patent] law is a state invention, whose roots lie in censorship and thought control.”

“Copyright arose in response to the printing press. The government and the church feared people spreading information, they wanted to control it.”
– Stephan Kinsella about intellectual property law

In this talk, Kinsella explains that the most evil state policies and institutions include war, taxation, state provided education, central banking, the drug war  and intellectual property, or intellectual property, namely patent and copyright law. In the modern age, intellectual property its importance, and the damage it causes, have increased. Patent originated in protectionism and mercantilism, while copyright originated in censorship. In this modern age of high tech, globalization and international trade, the economic cost of patent law and its detrimental effect on innovation has gotten many times worse. Copyright limits the freedom to learn and communicate and threatens to undermine freedom on the Internet, one of the most important tools to fight against the state.

Kinsella, a practicing patent attorney, argues that intellectual property is in a sense the most insidious of the major state institutions. War, taxation, the drug war, and other state laws and institutions are obviously illiberal and rights violations. However, patent and copyright law fly under the banner of intellectual "property" rights, confusing even many anti-state libertarians, who normally support property rights. Kinsella argues that intellectual property rights are based on a fallacious understanding of rights—namely, confusions in Locke's 'labor theory of property' and that this error pervades and corrupts much modern thinking about the role of law and property rights and the state. The damage caused and the threat posed by intellectual property is greater than most people realize; it is growing; and the intellectual error behind it must be exposed.

Stephan Kinsella is a practicing patent attorney and a libertarian writer and speaker. He Founder and Executive Editor of Libertarian Papers, Director of the Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (C4SIF). A former adjunct professor at South Texas College of Law, he has published numerous articles and books on intellectual property law, international law, and the application of libertarian principles to legal topics, including Against Intellectual Property. He received an LL.M. in international business law from King’s College London, a JD from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at LSU, and BSEE and MSEE degrees from LSU.