From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2003 - 11:01:47 MST
Samantha Atkins writes, regarding the question of whether the economics
literature on public goods is relevant to intellectual property issues:
> No, not without making the distinction. Go read the works of
> Lessing if interest in what the distinctions are and why they
> are crucially important.
Hmmm, Lessing? Apparently you are referring to the 18th century German
playwrite Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who did write about intellectual
property and ownership thereof. That's a surprisingly erudite reference
coming from you.
Lessing struggled to make ends meet as a playwrite and was a strong
advocate for the right to sell ones works, a challenging concept in its
day. He wrote, in his essay Live and Let Live:
What? The writer is to be blamed for trying to make the offspring of
his imagination as profitable as he can? Just because he works with
his noblest faculties he isn?t supposed to enjoy the satisfaction
that the roughest handyman is able to procure - that of owing his
livelihood to his own industry? But wisdom, they say, for sale for
cash! Shameful! Freely hast thou received, freely thou must give!
Thus thought the noble Luther in translating the Bible.
Luther, I answer, is an exception in many things. Furthermore, it is
for the most part not true that the writer received for nothing what
he does not want to give away for nothing. Often an entire fortune
may have been spent preparing to teach and please the world.
http://www.compilerpress.atfreeweb.com/Anno%20Woodmansee%20Genius%20&%20Copyright.htmcom
Actually I'm pulling your leg. I'm sure you simply misspelled the name of
Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, who recently argued on copyright
issues before the Supreme Court. I am pretty familiar with him, I read
his essays and columns regularly, although I haven't read his books.
Perhaps you could amplify which specific points made by Lessig are
relevant to the question of whether intellectual property could or should
be treated economically like a public good.
Hal
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