Saturday, November 17, 2012

Is the Republican Party Having a Minor Outbreak of Sanity?

http://www.volokh.com/2012/11/16/republicans-repudiate-40-years-of-tougher-copyright-laws/

I've written about copyright quite a bit here at the Chariot.  Perhaps someone has been reading?
Intellectual property is NOT a natural right granted by God, nor does it exist in a 'state of Nature'.  It is a purely contractual privileges, granted by a legislature in the hope of promoting some common good.  The Constitution in fact authorizes the issuance of its instruments---copyrights and patents---for precisely this reason.  Note the difference in the way this is worded versus, say, almost everything in the bill of rights.  Pretty much all the rights alleged to exist in the Bill of Rights are not granted by that document,  but simply recognized and theoretically protected from infringement (how'd that work out?).
It frankly disgusts me to see propaganda attempting to smuggle copyright infringement under the moral aegis of theft.  It's not, it's more like violating a regulation granting a monopoly to a favored crony.  Perhaps the Republicans are starting to realize this as well.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too bad they're too stupid to figure out that loosening up on copyright law would be a HUGE win for them: increased white youth support and sticking it to wealthy liberals in the film/tv/music industry.

Jehu said...

Anon,
Yes, whenever a leftist constituency wants to hurt another leftist constituency and the side effects are all good on your side, you----drum roll---help them out. It's unlikely you'll get much extra youth support, but you will hammer your enemies, and that's most of the point of politics.

Dave said...

Yeah this issue really has no downside with Republicans. I suspect even Silicon Valley (which has been strongly leaning democrat) would get behind a push to loosen copyright and/or patent law.

fnn said...

Making war on Hollywood through advocacy of more freedom sounds like a great combination.