[p2p-research] Repurposing Profit for User Freedom

[Kevin Carson]

On 2/6/10, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree I combined two unrelated things probably unfairly.  But the point
> is, only in coercive socialist regimes has there been large-scale rejection
> of IP so fa=--that I know of...where state espionage of IP is a standard
> practice.  Even there it is short-lived.  I'm told Cuba has a battery of IP
> lawyers for their medical industry at present and relationships with top
> international IP law firms.

> OK.  Give me another example to cure my bias.  The only ones I know of in
> practice are coercive socialist projects.  Generally only hegemonic states
> that ignore rights established in other nation act broadly to nullify widely
> held views such as the enforceability of IP law.  In modern times those tend
> to be coercive socialist nations--unlike Michel I could easily put Venezuela
> in that category as well as China.

Again, I disagree with your focus on the state's laws as the primary
reference point for defining "reality."  When I refer to people who
favor free culture and oppose IP, my main focus is individual.  And
the main places where such ideas are widespread on an individual level
are the countries in which free associations of individuals like the
OS movement, the EFF, publications like Techdirt, etc., are common.

Just as an aside, I consider Chavez a lot less statist and
authoritarian (despite seriously troubling caudillist tendencies) than
what the U.S. would replace him with, or what it's supporting next
door with Plan Colombia.  I consider the Sandinistas a lot less
horrible than the Contras, Allende than Pinochet, etc.

---
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html