"Patent and copyright monopolies are another way in which the government redistributes income upward. The income from these government granted monopolies flows overwhelmingly to people in the top 10 percent of the income distribution.

Read leftist Dean Baker's article here. Worth a look, if only for his discussion of intellectual property.

Mark Brady - 1/14/2011

When I came across his article, I followed up the links to his proposed alternatives to copyright and patents, and, yes, I agree they're statist proposals. But, as you would expect, that's not why I linked to his post. I thought it interesting he believes that patent and copyright monopolies lead to a more unequal distribution of wealth. I rather agree with him although I don't know whether his explanation would be similar to mine.

Stephan Kinsella - 1/13/2011

These remind me of the "free market" proposals to take $80billion of tax dollars and use it to reward innovation. Some "alternative" to the statist patent system!
see http://blog.mises.org/9005/30-billion-taxfunded-innovation-contracts-the-progressive-libertarian-solution/ and http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/31820.html and http://blog.mises.org/8396/libertarian-favors-80-billion-annual-tax-funded-medical-innovation-prize-fund/

Stephan Kinsella - 1/13/2011

re patents: another thoroughly statist proposal:
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/intellectual_property_2004_09.pdf

"This paper examines four alternatives to the patent system:
1) A proposal by Tim Hubbard and James Love for a mandatory employer-based
research fee to be distributed through intermediaries to researchers (Love 2003);
2) A proposal by Aidan Hollis for zero-cost compulsory licensing patents, in which
the patent holder is compensated based on the rated quality of life improvement
generated by the drug, and the extent of its use (Hollis 2004);
3) A proposal by Michael Kremer for an auction system in which the government
purchases most drug patents and places them in the public domain (Kremer
1998);2 and
4) A proposal by Representative Dennis Kucinich to finance pharmaceutical
research through a set of competing publicly supported research centers (Kucinich
2004)."

Stephan Kinsella - 1/13/2011

follow the links:

this is utterly horrible
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/ArtisticFreedomVoucherPamphlet.pdf

"What is the Artistic Freedom Voucher?

"The Artistic Freedom Voucher (AFV) would allot about $20 billion of taxpayer money to be paid to individual musicians or groups and allow the public to exchange, download, reproduce and enjoy creative work legally, efficiently and inexpensively.

Every adult could voluntarily give their $100 voucher to a musician or group of musicians; this is enough to support 500,000 artists with a salary of $40,000 per year. Musicians would still be able to receive income from concerts and other live performances, where musicians usually make most of their money, anyway. The AFV is an alternative to the copyright system. The AFV would work with technology and the internet to make music free and downloadable for the public, while at the same time ensure that musicians can make a living as artists rather than
living as "starving artists.""