April 11, 2009

Intellectual Property and the Economy

Afaic "intellectual property" (patents, copyrights, trademarks) is a social contract. Afaic parasitical rent-seeking special interests have distorted the underlying law to the point at which intellectual property does more harm than good.

Despite the excesses and misuse, incentivizing innovation and progress sounds like a worthy concept. However, two reputable economists argue that the concept is inherently flawed and we'd be better off without it.

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