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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.86 -->
+<title>Review: Boldrin and Levine, &ldquo;The case against
+intellectual property&rdquo; - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/boldrin-levine.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Review: Boldrin and Levine, &ldquo;The case against intellectual property&rdquo;</h2>
+
+<p>
+by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/"><strong>Richard Stallman</strong></a></p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michele_Boldrin/publication/4980956_The_Case_Against_Intellectual_Property/links/53f9c5c90cf20a45496a9040/The-Case-Against-Intellectual-Property.pdf?origin=publication_detail">
+The Case Against Intellectual Property</a>, by Boldrin and Levine,
+argues on economic grounds that authors can
+make money by selling their work even in a world where everyone can copy.</p>
+
+<p>
+You've probably heard the superficial argument that &ldquo;If the
+program is free, you will only sell one copy&rdquo;. The obvious
+response is that today there are companies that sell thousands of
+copies a month. But this paper provides another response: it shows
+why people who are fully aware of the economic consequences of the
+freedom to copy would pay a high price for &ldquo;the first
+copy&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty">The
+term &ldquo;intellectual property&rdquo; is biased and spreads
+confusion.</a> The bias is easy to see&mdash;by calling copyright and
+patents and trademarks &ldquo;property&rdquo;, it leads people to
+think that criticizing them is &ldquo;opposing property rights&rdquo;.
+The confusion is less evident: by lumping copyright and patents and
+trademarks together, it leads people to treat them as one thing, to
+ignore their large differences and consider them as a single issue in
+terms of their meager similarities.</p>
+
+<p>
+This usually means ignoring social and ethical aspects of copyrights, and
+the different social and ethical aspects of patents, and considering both
+copyrights and patents as a single issue in narrow economic terms. The
+proponents of harshly restrictive copyrights and patents then present an
+economic argument that is so simple that it gives an appearance of being
+irrefutable.</p>
+
+<p>
+I normally respond by showing the aspects of the situation that have been
+ignored by treating the issue as a purely economic one. Boldrin and
+Levine's paper takes on that simple economic argument on its own terms, and
+shows the gaps in it, gaps that the apparent simplicity tends to hide.</p>
+
+<p>
+I believe we should continue to reject the term &ldquo;intellectual
+property&rdquo;. We need to call attention to the non-economic
+aspects of copyrights and the different non-economic aspects of
+patents. However, Boldrin and Levine's arguments will be useful for
+responding to people who insist on narrowing their values to
+economics.</p>
+
+<p>
+The paper is addressed to economists and somewhat mathematical.
+Popularization of its ideas would be useful.</p>
+
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">&lt;gnu@gnu.org&gt;</a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
+the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
+to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
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+Please see the <a
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+README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations
+of this article.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+ files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+ be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this
+ without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
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+ If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
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+
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+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2003, 2014, 2015, 2018 Richard M. Stallman</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2018/12/15 14:02:38 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
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