LibertarianChristians.com » intellectual property

New Copyright Rules Released

Norman — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:39:19 +0000

Intellectual property, especially copyright and patents, is purely fictitious, a construction of the State. Stephan Kinsella has definitively proved such in his paper Against Intellectual Property.

Nevertheless, the US government continues to prop up this inefficient and unethical practice. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, many lives have been ruined by the bad side of corps, full of lawyers hunting for cash. We all know of the old ladies and teenagers who receive verdicts requiring them to pay obscene amounts of money for such non-crimes.

Well, some new rules coming straight from the Library of Congress are sure to help alleviate a few of these problems. Essentially, the Librarian of Congress must evaluate exemptions to the DMCA every 3 years, i.e. you cannot be prosecuted, period, if you do these things. Previously, there had only been one exemption recognized. Now, there are SIX exemptions, and the first three are quite significant.

The basics of each exemption:
1) You can rip your own DVDs. You can remix scenes for noncommercial use. So all those Hitler-plus-caption remixes from the movie Downfall no longer can be taken down. Teachers who want to use a movie in a class can rip it. No one from the DMCA can touch you.
2) You can jailbreak your phone, nobody can prosecute you. Big swipe at Apple/AT&T.
3) You can use software to unlock your phone for use on a different network.
4) You can use software to crack game SecuROMs or other game DRM for the purpose of “investigation” or research. The language is very broad, since even curiosity can prompt “investigation.”
5) You can use cracks to bypass a hardware dongle. This is significant for people like me who use lab equipment or any variety of peripherals with stupid dongles.
6) You can crack DRM encrypted ebooks to use text-to-speech capabilities. Convenient.

Gizmodo has a more thorough analysis here.

These new rules surely do not go far enough, but thankfully things are not becoming more restrictive in this arena. But we need to continue pushing back, so keep spreading the word!

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New Copyright Rules Released

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Tags: copyright, economics, ethics, intellectual property

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Intellectual Property and Libertarianism

Norman — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:00:32 +0000

Stephan Kinsella’s presentation at Mises University this past July is an excellent introduction to intellectual property, and to rights theory in general. LVMI recently posted the talk to their YouTube channel, and it is well worth watching when you have some time this weekend. Don’t be intimidated by the length that YouTube indicates, because if you want you can skip the Q&A which is nearly half of the talk. If anything, listen to the first half hour; you won’t regret it!

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Intellectual Property and Libertarianism

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Tags: economics, intellectual property, natural law, rights

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“The Fallacy of Intellectual Property”

Norman — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:04:03 +0000

The Ludwig von Mises Institute has featured my good friend Daniel Krawisz (from the Libertarian Longhorns) and his article The Limits of Intellectual Property as a Mises Daily Article. Check it out now!

Congratulations, Daniel, on being the first Libertarian Longhorn to have contributed to Mises Daily! May it be the first of many intellectual contributions that our members make to the libertarian movement. Join me in giving him a hearty round of internet applause… [clap clap clap]

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“The Fallacy of Intellectual Property”

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Tags: intellectual property, philosophy, property rights

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Speedlinking Friday: Meltdown, Kindle, Putin, and Lincoln

Norman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:20:29 +0000

You need to watch this video of Thomas Woods on the Glenn Beck show. If only Beck would have been this open when Ron Paul was running for president!

In a stupendous example of how IP clogs up the works, the Authors Guild, an advocacy group for writers, is claiming that Amazon’s Kindle 2 is breaking copyright law with its new text-to-speech feature. Their director is quoted as saying: “They don’t have the right to read a book out loud. That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.” So mother, you reading aloud to us as kids makes you a criminal. Okay, not really, but read more about this bizarro situation here.

You know that there is a big problem in America when Vladimir Putin warns us that we might be getting a little too, what’s the word, socialistic?

“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”

Thomas DiLorenzo reviews the book of a scholar who has come clean about Emperor Lincoln.

Marvel’s 2006 book, Mr. Lincoln Goes to War, says this on the inside cover: “Marvel leads the reader inexorably to the conclusion that Lincoln not only missed opportunities to avoid war but actually fanned the flames – and often acted quite unconstitutionally in prosecuting the war once it had begun.” This is obviously not how to win another “Lincoln Prize.”

Lastly, let me encourage you to check out the brand-spanking new website of UT-Austin’s Libertarian Longhorns, a group I help run. It’s pretty spartan-looking right now, but I’m excited about the potential opportunities it will provide for growing the group.

Have a great weekend!

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Speedlinking Friday: Meltdown, Kindle, Putin, and Lincoln

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Speedlinking Friday

Norman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:30:21 +0000

First off, congrats to Baroness_Fel for writing the 100th comment on LCC (and on the 50th post, no less), in the Washington to the Rescue post! That’s a lot of comments for a blog barely past two months old. Way to go everybody, keep the discussion going!

Fave article of the week: John Hasnas describes What It Feels Like To Be A Libertarian. Don’t be discouraged when you read the following quote, it’s a great article:

I’ll tell you. It feels bad. Being a libertarian means living with a level of frustration that is nearly beyond human endurance. It means being subject to unending scorn and derision despite being inevitably proven correct by events. How does it feel to be a libertarian? Imagine what the internal life of Cassandra must have been and you will have a pretty good idea.

Imagine spending two decades warning that government policy is leading to a major economic collapse, and then, when the collapse comes, watching the world conclude that markets do not work.

Imagine continually explaining that markets function because they have a built in corrective mechanism; that periodic contractions are necessary to weed out unproductive ventures; that continually loosening credit to avoid such corrections just puts off the day of reckoning and inevitably leads to a larger recession; that this is precisely what the government did during the 1920′s that led to the great depression; and then, when the recession hits, seeing it offered as proof of the failure of laissez-faire capitalism.

That may sound pretty bleak for aspiring libertarian thinkers. But you know what else? Despite the frustration, it feels good. Finally making sense of the world and how things work feels good. I don’t regret one minute of it. Period.

Two articles on LRC regarding liberty and the Christian faith came up this week. First, Stan Warford’s article on The Christian and War has some great words to us about the history of Christianity’s view on war. The following quote is excellent:

On the evening of October 28, 311 at a place called Melvian Bridge, the pagan Constantine was at war to determine who would be the emperor of the western empire. He was to do battle the next day, and there was a real possibility that he would lose. That night he had a dream in which he saw a cross in the sky with the Latin words, “With this sign thou shalt conquer.” He rose from his bed and that night had the sign of the cross painted on the armor of his soldiers. The next day he was victorious and became emperor of the western half of the Roman empire. Later he became emperor of the entire Roman empire.

As a result of that battle, Constantine in the year 313 made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. He confiscated many of the pagan temples and gave them to the Christians, who converted them into houses of worship. After Constantine died, the ruling class criticized the Christian community for receiving benefits from the state while still preaching nonviolence and not supporting its wars. So, the state made the church choose between adjusting its teaching to accommodate the state, or losing its state-sanctioned privileges. In 368 A.D. for the first time in the history of the church, St. Ambrose offered the first justification for the Christian to participate in the violence of war. His student, St. Augustine, codified the teaching in his so-called Just War Theory that is used by most churches today.

In 311 A.D. you could not be a Roman soldier and at the same time be a Christian. By 416 A.D., that is, within the space of about a hundred years, you could not be a Roman soldier unless you were a Christian.

Next, Christopher Bevis has published an article called Caesar and God in Context that explains the “Render to Caesar” passages in the Gospels. He takes a slightly different viewpoint than I do on the topic, but I like his analysis.

Jeff Tucker keeps opining on copyright law, and it’s still fun to read.

Justin Raimondo recounts the history of web political commentary and activism in Ideology and the Internet. I find interesting the shift of websites like DailyKos and Democratic Underground from government critics into Obama-worshipping shills. Just goes to show that most of the modern left is more interesting in their kind of statism rather than getting rid of the uber-power of the Executive and enhancing civil liberties.

Nancy Pelosi did a bang-up job estimating the number of Americans losing their jobs these days:

I really think that if we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs. I don’t think we can go fast enough to stop that. The President asked for action, swift and bold. That is exactly what we are doing.

Brilliant woman, I’m telling you.

And now for something completely different… James T. Kirk, singing opera with Khan Noonian Singh.

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Speedlinking Friday

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Tags: copyright, economics, intellectual property, speedlinking, theology, war, war on terror

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Speedlinking Friday

Norman — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:30:58 +0000

Much has happened this week, so much to talk about! Unlike last week I will not stick to a single topic, although many hover around Obamunism since that is on everyone’s mind.

First, a few funny things I found on Amazon: Get your very own Pocket Obama! (Thanks to Drew for sharing.) Train up your child in the way he should go with the Playmobil Security Checkpoint! Check out the reviews on this one, they are priceless: “I was a little disappointed when I first bought this item, because the functionality is limited. My 5 year old son pointed out that the passenger’s shoes cannot be removed.”

To follow up on last weeks links, Paul Green writes about Christianity and Intellectual Property.

I can haz moneyz now?

Anthony Gregor reported that House Republicans seemed poised to seriously consider being fiscally conservative again – well, at least for a few minutes. Obama’s new $825 billion stimulus package swiftly passed through the House regardless – 244 to 188. But one has to admit, when the entire opposition party and eleven others are opposed to a bill, the legislation can’t be good.

Obama signed his first bill into law this week, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, named for an Alabama woman who after a 19-year career at a tire factory complained that she wasn’t getting paid as much as some other men there. This begs the question: if she deserved that much more pay and her skills were so underappreciated, then why did she hang around for 19 years?

Obama continues to escalate the war in Afghanistan. In other war news, Blackwater has been banned from Iraq.

Funny, how can one believe in change when Obama keeps hiring lobbyists for the cabinet after saying time and time again how he wouldn’t hire lobbyists? Go watch this one minute video.

The Hayek Center is back up and running for all you Friedrich-philes.

Ex-NASA climatologist now is a global-warming skeptic. Get the politics out, I say!

Finally, here is a cleverly constructed video with a poignant point to make about how we live as Christians. I hope it gives you something to think about as you approach your congregation’s worship service this weekend.

And that, as they say, is the news.

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Speedlinking Friday

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Tags: Afghanistan, bailouts, Blackwater, economics, global warming, intellectual property, Obama, speedlinking

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Speedlinking Friday – Intellectual Property

Norman — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:00:16 +0000

Today I would like to invite you to read a bit about intellectual property. Last week, Jeff Tucker of the Mises Institute published a book review of Against Intellectual Monopoly (also freely available as an etext) by Michele Boldrin and David Levine, a fascinating book that challenges the typical notion that intervention in the realm of so-called “intellectual property” is a legitimate function of the State. It builds on the more theoretical work Against Intellectual Property (also freely available in PDF) by Stephan Kinsella by providing more real-world examples of how copyrights and patents fail to accomplish their goals.

This review has prompted quite a stir amongst libertarians who frequent Mises.org and LewRockwell.com – there are over 300 comments on the related Mises blog post! So I think it would be constructive to bring some of these blog posts all together in one place where you can quickly read what many have been recently saying on the topic of intellectual property and its validity within the free market.

If you only look at one thing, read Jeff Tucker’s original review of Against Intellectual Monopoly.
Kinsella comments on Hayek, IP, and Knowledge.
Tucker warns authors against the dangers of copyright.
What exactly is your attitude towards IP?

A few more minor blog news notes… I’ve added a few things along the sidebar this week, including a “Blogroll” of links to other libertarian sites (a few specifically Christian ones as well), recent comments, and a little donation button. The idea with the latter basically is that if you enjoy the material here and would like to consider it like a subscription to a magazine, please contribute to the upbuilding of this blog. Ultimately, I’m more interested in your learning than your money, but any contribution towards making this site an even better resource (such as a premium WordPress theme!) would be much appreciated.

Somebody needs to hear this right now, and I’m pretty sure that person is me: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Phil. 4:13)

Let God be your strength, and enjoy the weekend!

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Speedlinking Friday – Intellectual Property

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