A Libertarian Critique of Intellectual Property

Tags: Private Property, Legal System

06/11/2014 Butler Shaffer

In this monograph, Butler Shaffer addresses an important question that has aroused much interest among libertarians: What is the status of intellectual property? Are patents and copyrights legitimate? This is a major contribution to libertarian legal theory and an indispensable guide to a vital topic.

Narrated by Clay Barnett. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.