>
> Sounds like the anarcho-socialist argument against property. I'm having
> fun with those bozos right now on alt.anarchy. They don't understand
> that I've painted them into a paradox. They either have to acknowledge
> property rights or admit that they beleive that individuals are slaves
> to the group.
The idea that anti-patent arguments are anti-property has been
debunked here so many times that using it is dishonest.
As I have pointed out here before, it is the patent concept that is
a socialist one--it derives from the labor theory of value--the
discredited idea that work is valuable in itself. Just because an
inventor does work, that's no reason to assume it is valuable, any
more than a craftsman making artifacts no one wants. Value is
created by demand; if an inventor creates something to meet the
demands of the market, he will make money. If others also fulfill
demands by using his invention, they make money too. None of that
justifies the inventor using state guns to prevent others from also
profiting from his invention. The state should protect your
property, because when others use it, you can't. The state has no
business protecting your ideas. If others can use them to profit
more than you do, it is because they fulfill needs better than you
and deserve to profit more--after all, you have more intimate
knowledge of your ideas than they do--if you can't profit from
that, you're doing something wrong.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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