DISQUS

Uh, all property rights emerge as a result of economic considerations. Read, for instance, Harold Demsetz's 1967 article, "Toward a Theory of Property Rights."

Jesse, it is true that if there were no copyright, it would not be morally wrong to copy works of art. This does not make the argument circular. If there were no copyright, then artists would produce with the expectation that their goods would be copied. As a result, they would produce fewer works (How many fewer? What is the efficient copyright term? These are empirical questions). It would not be wrong to copy these works.

The law provides for copyright because information goods are costly to produce and cheap to copy. It is an improvement in economic efficiency to provide copyright. Those artists who rely on copyright in their production decision have a right to that protection. Breaking their monopoly is equivalent to theft---you are taking something from them.

I don't agree with your claim that (all) things are crimes independent of whether they are enforced. Read Hayek on the difference between law and legislation. Driving, say, 5 mph above the speed limit is not against the law. It is against legislation. But the law is what is done, not what some goofballs in your state capitol say should be done.

As a philosophical anarchist, I view government as morally irrelevant. The point is not that copying is a violation of the government's legislation and therefore similar to theft. The point is that once people recognize intellectual property, it is property. Your car also is only your property because other people recognize it to be so, not (directly) because the government says it is. If intellectual property is property, then the unauthorized taking of it is theft.

The artist owns the potential sale because he created the work with the expectation that the law would give him a monopoly in the work. In competition in general, there is no expectation of a legally enforced monopoly privilege. Creating a mixtape for a friend is theft if and only if artists that create the music have an expectation that the government will effectively prohibit mixtapes. No one has that expectation, so creating a mixtape is not morally equivalent to theft. Some other copyright violations, however, are morally equivalent to theft.

pownce@elidourado.com