Customer Reviews

Against Intellectual Property

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S. Kinsella has set forth the most direct and structured critique of so-called Intellectual Property on his book. As a consumer of books, music, movies and other media, and as a user of all the modern world inventions that improve our quality of life, every Amazon.com visitor should be interested and intrigued by this debate its and consequences. What is IP? Is it a sound concept? Does it conflict with "real" i.e. tangible property rights? Does it foster or stifle innovation? And finally, what every educated citizen needs to ask him or herself: cui bono? (who benefits?)

If IP is finally unmasked by Kinsella as the vehicle for large corporations to generate themselves a set of priviledges and an oligopolic environment, we and the next generations will owe the author a great deal of what we have lost in terms of liberty in exchange for a corrupt and misguided ideal of what Capitalism should be.

A must for creators, consumers, advocates and detractors of IP.

Kinsella's Against Intellectual Property is a stunning obliteration of IP as a valid conception of property. This work is essential to understanding why "intellectual property" actually violates property rights and stunts innovation.

This book is a brief, rational look at IP laws from the perspective of a lawyer familiar with the field. There are numerous citations of previous cases and other sources that probably only a lawyer would find useful, but I appreciate the rigor. If you're interested in IP or have yet to be exposed to the issue, this is a great place to start.

It is always easy to follow the pure road of libertarianism for a white, wealthy lad like Kinsella, raised in privilege. Arguments against IP and Patents are exactly what inbred capital wants to hear.

Imagine a world in which the author of Harry Potter remained on welfare while the publishers and others with capital benefitted wildly from her talent.

Or the world in which a man who invented an electric motor that would still be used unchanged after 130 years would have his invention taken by the monied class to leave him to die in complete poverty.

These are the changes Kinsella advocates and the world he would have us live in.

Of course J.K. Rowling has made enough money to feed her child (and then some) as well she should as the copyright owner of her own works.

The world of a great inventor reduced to poverty is exactly the world of the 1920's in which the great inventor Tesla was cheated and abused by wealth and libertarianism and the absence of a CONTINGENT Legal community. He was unable to assert his rights as the inventor of the three phase electric motor against ruthless scum like General Electric. So we already know the real world outcome of Kinsella's evil musings. A world in which privilege crushes talent and we are all the worse for it.