Musicians Have Themselves To Blame Part 2: Intellectual Property

By: Stacey Blood

We’ll get right to the chorus.

Why do we rail against monopolies out in the world but then find it all great fun to monopolize our ideas so nobody can capitalize on them but us?  Monopolies for other companies are bad, but monopolies for ourselves are good?

Intellectual property is a sanctimonious institution available to the arts for whatever reason and, like democracy, is oh so precious that nobody dare question it’s legitimacy in any way.  But they are both inherently antithetical to their prescribed purposes when you think the principles through universally.

To substantiate the position against intellectual property, there are a few prerequisite truths to explore:  Monopolies, scarcity, and law.

Monopolies

First, let’s define what monopolies are not, which are the result of big fat greedy cigar chompers buying up all the competitors and charging you whatever they please.  It never happens like this.  If it is a monopoly you seek, then there is one sure place to acquire one:  The government.

Government is, itself, a monopoly.  It has monopolies on law enforcement, justice, aggression, roads and infrastructure, and seemingly more and more on charity.  The closest things to monopolies we see today were created indirectly through government legislation in the form of expensive regulations, licensing, and registrations that act as a barrier to entry for smaller businesses.

Actual monopolies, however, are created directly through government designation, such as in the case with public utilities.  Dare we forget about the government protected Ma Bell monopoly that set telecommunications back decades.

But in this entry the focus is on the universally available monopolies such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights which are simply ideas and that we call “intellectual property”.

Can An Idea Really Be Property?

How can one solely own the economic rights to an idea?  It seems obvious that if something doesn’t resemble property through usual means of qualification it warrants scrutiny as genuine property.  Things that are property have scarcity like a car or your shoes.  If you steal my car I don’t still have my car.  It is a scarce thing and I only have one.

However, if you use my idea to produce something I still have my idea and can still produce from it.

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