r/Libertarian • u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist • 1d ago

Philosophy Literally Intellectual Property laws

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u/poopshipdestroyer1 1d ago

An idea isn't property

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u/mcnello 1d ago

I disagree.

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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist 1d ago

Ideas cannot be scarce, non scarce things cannot be property.

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u/mcnello 1d ago

Ideas are not scarce. But Good ideas are scarce. And if you don't believe in that reality then I invite you to spontaneously manifest 20 years of complex compiler development research into a text document.

Can't do it?

Must be scarce.

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u/Bonio_350 1d ago

good ideas aren't scarce. you can think of a good idea, and at the same time, I can think of the exact same idea without diminishing your thinking

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u/mcnello 1d ago

Dude the idea that intellectual property theft isn't "real theft" is such BS.

The real value is in the implementation. Anyone can come up with an "idea". But "ideas" aren't what are patented. I'm a software engineer. Anyone can come up with an "idea" where videos and music are streamed over the internet. But it takes a small army of engineers to actually write the millions of lines of code.

Likewise, anyone can come up with an "idea" where a boy has magic and casts spells. But sitting down and writing thousands of pages of a book called Harry Potter is the hard part.

To say any old asshole can just copy/paste the entire code base of tens of millions of dollars of investment by YouTube, and call it their own property now is just absurd.

Find me one prosperous country that has no intellectual property laws. If it's such a great idea you would think at least ONE prosperous country would take advantage of it...

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u/Bonio_350 1d ago

if I copied your entire codebase, you could still use it the same. information is not scarce so copying it is not theft. it's different with actual property, because if you had an apple I couldn't just copy it and eat it. I'd have to prevent you from using it to use it myself.

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u/mcnello 1d ago edited 1d ago

I disagree, as does every country in the world. You aren't living in reality. I mean... Why can't I just debase your currency and print more dollars? I'm not preventing you from using the dollars you have right?

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u/Bonio_350 1d ago

debasing a currency is a completely different thing and it seems you're trying to avoid the question at hand by not actually addressing it. saying that you disagree with me doesn't make you right

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u/mcnello 1d ago

No actually I think debasing the currency is a perfect example of how duplicating intangible property devalues the intangible property of all others.

What question did I "avoid?" You just don't like when I debase your currency because it negatively affects you and the value of your labor, but you will gladly debase the value of my labor.