On a recent Mises blog thread, a commenter noted repeated a common argument that IP rights are needed to protect inventors and innovators. The reasoning is that without IP, some large company can just “knock off” your products and outcompete you.
The U.S. government has indicted Aaron Swartz for downloading too many scholarly journals from JSTOR. The penalty could be 35 years in jail.
The Beeb will be broadcasting a “Keynes vs. Hayek debate” (held at the London School of Economics) next week–perfect timing, right in the middle of Mises University…. George Selgin represents the Austrian side. Details below (h/t Robert Groezinger):
LSE and BBC Radio 4 public debate
Date: Tuesday 26 July 2011
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Professor George Selgin, Professor Lord Skidelsky, Duncan Weldon, Dr Jamie Whyte
Chair: Paul Mason
The creator of Gillgan’s Island, Sherwood Schwartz, died last week, and the Washington Post asked Paul Cantor for his own interpretation of the television series, since Professor Cantor had written an entire book on the subject. The result is hilarious and interesting. Substitute the word Democracy for Freedom and we are getting somewhere.
When I think of all the worries Keynesians seem to find
And how they’re in a hurry to complicate their minds
By chasing after money with nothing else in view
Austrians are different, we see the problem through
(sung to “Let’s Live for Today,” with apologies to the Grassroots)
In a recent series of blog posts on the meaning of saving, Bob Murphy gives the following example intended to illustrate and defend his interpretation of the concept of saving:
A worry one variously hears about getting rid of the idea of intellectual property is that in such a world most of the world will consist entirely in copies of the really successful thing and therefore there would be no real reward for doing something amazing. All incentive to innovate is lost.
Despite their graduates having fewer employment opportunities and lower pay, law schools are ramping up the brick and mortar. David Segal reports for The New York Times,
