So I was wondering about the actual stance of Objectivism on IP rights. I have to say from the start, I looked it up just a little bit, and I found out some interesting ideas, like the difference between rights over an invention and rights over a discovery. I also know that all property is, in a way, intellectual property. One aspect remains unclear to me. There’s no doubt that if you make a discovery or invent something, you can give it a physical form and claim ownership over that physical object which embodies it. A story can be written in a book, a film can be put on a DVD, a video game can come in the form of a CD in a carcass and so on.
My question is whether ideas alone should be protected by the law in the way that others cannot use your own ideas, if you’ve made them public first (even tho they do not exist in a physical form), without your consent.
This question came to my mind when I heard about how fidget spinners were invented. A friend told me a mother of a mentally challenged kid invented that toy sometime in the '70’s to keep the child entertained. She decided to make more such toys and sell them, as well as to claim IP rights over the fidget spinner concept. Nobody kept buying those toys so she gave up the IP rights. Now nobody owns the fidget spinner concept (legally) so anybody can produce and sell them without having to pay that woman. However, the story is not as relevant as the principle itself. Again, should it be legal that people should be able to use someone else’s invention ideas for their own benefit without the inventor’s permission?
While Libertarians and Anarchists give clear justifications for their views, I haven’t found a clear position adopted by Objectivists. And I don’t wish to sound like an eclectic, but thus far I have to agree with what Anarcho-Capitalists are saying about IP rights:
“Once you make an idea public, you can’t take it back. It will exist in the minds of those who were exposed to it. To control a part of a person’s mind means to control that person. Furthermore, resources are limited, at least at a given moment, so property rights in general are necessary because nobody can always have enough of anything. There’s two of us and only one apple, and since I bought it that makes it mine and you’ll just have to do without it. But with non-physical forms of IP that’s not the case. A digital copy of a film that’s uploaded on a piracy website comes in an infinite amount of supplies. Basically everyone with a computer can download that film and the ‘stock’ will never be exhausted. Therefore, legal rigths over IP that’s not been given a physical form should not exist. Plus, for a government, or anybody, to arbitrarily decide how long will an inventor have IP rights over his invention(s), without any objective pattern of deducing the most appropriate period of time is morally and logically invalid to begin with.”
Also this next part is sth I thought of myself (given the example of the film and the piracy website) :
Since the people involved in the production of that film are limited in number (duh) and the film comes in a potentially infinite amount of digital (free) copies, those people cannot possibly contain nor claim ownership over those numerically infinite copies, simply because men are not omnipotent. The same principle, however, does not apply for physical copies of that film, or for physical products in general, because they’re also limited in number.
It maybe sounds silly, but they’re just my thoughts tho. :worry:
P.S. : I am not doubting that piracy or IP ‘stealing’ in general is immoral, I am familiar with the concepts of ‘unearned matter’ and ‘unearned greatness’ and Rand’s thoughts on the morality of the issue, I just want to know whether or not you think it should be legal/illegal and why.