From: hal@finney.org
Date: Tue Mar 14 2000 - 11:37:18 MST
Lee Daniel Crocker, <lee@piclab.com>, writes:
> As I have pointed out here before, it is the patent concept that is
> a socialist one--it derives from the labor theory of value--the
> discredited idea that work is valuable in itself. Just because an
> inventor does work, that's no reason to assume it is valuable, any
> more than a craftsman making artifacts no one wants.
But patents make no statements about value. A patent can be as worthless
as any other piece of property. Do property rights in other fields derive
from the labor theory of value? Does the fact that someone can own land
imply that the land must be considered valuable? No, any form of property,
including patents, can be worthless.
Patents extend the notion of property into the abstract. Whether this is
good or effective is debatable, but it has nothing to do with the labor
theory of value.
Hal
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