Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 282.

From Free Man Beyond the Wall, Ep. 379, with host Pete Quinones:

Episode 379: No, China Is Not 'Stealing Our I.P.' w/ Stephan Kinsella

Feb 19, 2020

66 Minutes

Suitable for All Ages

Pete invited Stephan Kinsella to return to the show. Stephan is an American intellectual property/patent attorney, author, and anarcho-capitalist.

Pete asked Stephan to come on and share his opinion that China is in fact, NOT "stealing our I.P." Stephan gives a primer as to why intellectual property laws are immoral and devious and explains in detail the issue with I.P. and China.

Stephan's Anti-IP Books and Articles

Stephan's Articles and Speeches

The Case Against I.P. 0 A Concise Guide

How I.P. Hampers the Free Market

The I.P. Commission

USTPO and Commerce Dept. Distortions: I.P. Contributes 5 Trillion and 40 Million Jobs to the Economy

The Mountain of I.P. Legislation

Susan Houseman on Manufacturing - EconTalk

Independent Institute on the "Benefits of Intellectual Property

Link to Richard Grove's Autonomy Course

TakeHumanAction.com

Donate at the Libertarian Institute

Pete's Link to Sign Up for the LP

Lions of Liberty Podcast

Pete's Patreon

Pete's Books on Amazon

Pete's Books Available for Crypto

Pete on Facebook

Pete on Twitter

Below are some comments related to this topic which I sent a friend who had some questions about this issue:

***

Here are my thoughts on this matter. I've been thinking about, discussing, and wrestling with these issues for many months now. I have yet to read or speak to anyone who satisfies me that they have "the whole picture" so I have been forced to work without net, mostly.

First. Let's understand the basic background of American IP law--mostly, patent and copyright, but sometimes also less impactful variants such as trademark and trade secret (I would count defamation law too, but most legal scholars don't seem to see the connection). Copyright is rooted in censorship, and today is entrenched primarily in industries that think they rely on it--namely, the music and movie industry. Software is now also covered by copyright but oddly many software systems intentionally opt out of copyright through the use of various licenses. In any case, the publishing, music, and movie industry, the latter two largely based in the US, are huge lobbying forces to maintain or expand US copyright law--both domestically (such as with continual lobbying "by Disney" to keep expanding the term of US copyright, to keep Mickey Mouse from becoming public domain, such as with the Sonny Bono copyright term extension at in the 90s --to the point where copyright, originally 14 years [the term of two consecutive apprenticeships] is now life of the author plus 70 years--usually well over a century. And, they also push for the US to use its hegemony to force other companies to ratchet up their IP law to match US terms etc. Case in point: the US told Canada it couldn't participate in the TPP negotiations unless it increased its copyright terms, and Canada did so, by 20 years (in selected cases). Just for the privilege of negotiating in the TPP--which Trump nixed...

Similar things have happened with patent, which originated as crown-granted protectionism. Now many industries lobby to keep patent law alive too. Most of this lobbying pressure comes from US industries or western industries, such as hollywood and music and publishing houses in the case of copyright,