Internet Freedom Is Slavery?

According to a leaked report (see here and here; CHT Brandon), the Campaign for Liberty’s upcoming internet freedom manifesto condemns as an “insidious” and “pernicious” form of “internet collectivism” the view that “what is considered to be in the public domain should be greatly expanded.” Bizarrely, they toss opposition into IP into a list of proposals for government intervention.

Hey, C4L: refraining from censorship and protectionism is not a form of government intervention. For the libertarian case against IP, check out the Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom and the Molinari Institute’s anti-copyright page.

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9 Responses to Internet Freedom Is Slavery?

  1. Joseph Hertzlinger July 8, 2012 at 4:32 pm #

    I think they took the “Creative Commies” rhetoric literally. When some people pretend to be socialists, others will believe them.

    • Roderick July 9, 2012 at 4:00 am #

      Yeah, but there are plenty of prominent anti-IP free-marketers who have never “pretended to be socialists” — like virtually everybody at the Mises Institute, for example. And one would expect the C4L to be aware of them. It’s like one Ron Paul cheerleader accusing another Ron Paul cheerleader of being a commie.

      • Jason July 9, 2012 at 6:26 am #

        “It’s like one Ron Paul cheerleader accusing another Ron Paul cheerleader of being a commie.”

        The problem with this analogy is that that’s anything but uncommon.

        • Roderick July 9, 2012 at 7:24 pm #

          Only a communist would say such a thing.

  2. James July 9, 2012 at 10:41 am #

    How could you have IP without the state? If persons A and B both independently come up with the same idea and A happened to have done it first, why should A be able to use force against B or anyone else to prevent them from putting their ideas to work? The is no contract between A and B that limits B to what he can think on his own, and aren’t his ideas just as much his property and A’s are to him?

    • JOR July 9, 2012 at 12:37 pm #

      I imagine the same way you could have roads, property, marriage, law, taxation, slavery, war, genocide, and all sorts of other things that would supposedly require a state to exist but existed long before states regardless.

  3. Sergio Méndez July 9, 2012 at 12:14 pm #

    Profesor Long:

    I have a friend who is working in her doctoral research in anthropology. Her work is about peasant resistance in Colombia against genetically engineered seeds, specially the royalties peasants have to pay for the use of seeds genetically engineered by companies such as Monsanto (there are laws that prevent even the use of seeds that are genetically “similar” to the ones produced by such companies, as unbelievable that it sounds, with jail for “offenders”). I will like to know if there are some good books written from a libertarian perspective against the idea of intellectual property that you could recommend to her.

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  1. An Internet Independence Day? | The Libertarian Standard - July 6, 2012

    […] I do not necessarily endorse Paul’s manifesto either (in large part because it is pro-IP), I have argued recently elsewhere that the government (of all levels) is a key culprit […]

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