Copyright & Patent Laws Are Hurting the Economy

Patent and copyright law are stifling innovation and threatening the global economy according to two economists at Washington University in St. Louis in a new book, Against Intellectual Monopoly. Professors Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine call for abolishing the current patent and copyright system in order to unleash innovations necessary to reverse the current recession and rescue the economy. The professors discuss their stand against intellectual property protections in this video.

Taken from NewsWise

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[tanel42]

I also hate the propaganda term "Intellectual Property". It lumps together things that have essentially nothing in common. It operates as a catch-all to lump together disparate laws which originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues.

[littlelyera]

Of course it hurts to economy, civilization is founded on inventions. Dont they consider that students are some of the most creative ppl in the world. Students who are putting off their ideas because they are scared of the risk.Students who don't have the money.Its hurts the younger generation.

[JetixBeta]

Then why won't Obama and the Government remove both the patent laws and the copyright laws?

[malkdk]

History doesn't agree on the alleged positive effects of patents and copyright as much as we are led to believe. Actually the exact opposite seems to be true in many cases.

[malkdk]

of the abolition of patent laws. But we still have to weigh out the pros versus the cons, it's not as simple as "good" or "bad". There will without a doubt be some negative consequences to this abolition of patents and copyright, but after reading the book, it seems to me that the good things would outweigh the bad, by a sufficient margin, if you ask me.

I recommend reading the book if you'd like to learn more. It's available for free to download from their website and can also be purchased.

[malkdk]

@captainjohnshepard Mickey Mouse is *trademarked* by Disney, and also copyrighted. The authors don't suggest an abolition of trademark law. Trademarks serve to prevent companies that don't own a trademark from pretending to be the producer of a certain product, thus effectively cheating customers. This is not in the customer's interest.

You are right that the incentive to keep information closer, and not reveal as much to the public will probably be stronger. This is one of the negative impacts

[spaceking66]

i am all for copyright and patent laws copyright and patet laws protect and defend us artists against video pierits like you i hope and pray to god the police will naabb yyyyou for trying tochange the copyright and ppatens act

[spaceking66]

inetions  inventions

[spaceking66]

i hope and pray to god that the police will prossicuite peoplle ilegally copy wright other peoples inentions and art i m hope i can work with the riaa .music united.the center for democeracy and technolagy .cnet. to come up with a legal way to download and burn music .movies .videogames .software legaly

[captainjohnshepard]

So why the heck would you want to tell anyone your ideas? It encourages disclosure and lessens the barriers to entry because the economics for research is substantially reduced. You need to rethink your ideas. Transactions costs are a bigger problem to free trade than the limited time for intellectual property to be granted a monopoly. It gives people ideas on how to design around the patents. So if we didn't let Disney copyright Mickey Mouse why the heck would they want to market?

[captainjohnshepard]

So why the heck would you want to tell anyone your ideas? It encourages disclosure and lessens the barriers to entry because the economics for research is substantially reduced. You need to rethink your ideas. Transactions costs are a bigger problem to free trade than the limited time for intellectual property to be granted a monopoly. It gives people ideas on how to design around the patents. So if we didn't let Disney copyright Mickey Mouse why the heck would they want to market?

[blaziermissy]

@reddwarf2300282 Advertise? It's the truth.