Kinsella On Liberty

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 108. This was my (remotely delivered) presentation, “Why Intellectual Property is not Genuine Property,” at the 3rd Adam Smith Forum, Moscow, Russia (Nov. 12, 2011). As I noted in a previous post, this event was held Nov. 12, 2011 in Moscow. It was organized by the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, the Libertarian Party of Russia, and others. The Chairman of the ASF Steering Committee was economist Pavel Usanov, head of the Hayek Institute for Economy and Law, and Andrey Shal'nev, head of the federal committee of the Libertarian Party of Russia, was its co-chairman. I was invited to speak but could not attend in person, so my 47-minute speech "Why Intellectual Property is not Genuine Property" was presented remotely, with Russian subtitles. It is below, along with the original version and the English transcript plus the Russian translation, which was prepared by Maxim Tulenin, head of the Moscow branch of the Libertarian Party of Russia. Pictures from the event are h

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 107. This was one of my guest appearances on  Adam vs. the Man (Oct. 25, 2011), episode "on “AVTM + Stephan Kinsella: “Intellectual Property” vs The 4th Amendment," discussing Copyright and Neo-Mercantilism and related issues. We discussed U.S. Copyright Czar Cozied Up to Content Industry, E-Mails Show and related issues such as neo-mercantilist aspects of modern patent and copyright law (discussed in my post Rothbard on Mercantilism and State “Patents of Monopoly”). This was the new, 3.0 version of Adam's show. The previous version was carried by RT (Russia Today). I had appeared a couple times on the 2.0 show—On Adam vs. The Man re Drug Patents and Adam the Man vs. IP.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 106. I was a guest today on the Peter Schiff Show (guest host Stefan Molyneux), discussing: ObamaCare's Next Legal Hurdle. Stephan Kinsella, patent attorney & director of the Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom, on how ObamaCare still fails any reasonable legal test, whether anything constructive may come from the Apple/Samsung battle, and why entrepreneurs needn't worry about their intellectual property. Links to issues discussed: Oklahoma lawsuit to derail Obamacare? House passes Innovation Act by vote of 325-91: a small solution to a big patent problem See also Another Problem with Legislation: James Carter v. the Field Codes: From an 1884 paperby James C. Carter, The Proposed Codification of Our Common Law: A Paper Prepared at the Request of The Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York, Appointed to Oppose the Measure, defending New York's common law from David Dudley Field’s attempt to (legislatively) codify it: At present, when any doubt a

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 105. This is an interview I did a couple years ago with my friend, Dr. John McGinnis, on his radio show, “Open Mike with Dr. John McGinnis,” WRTA  (Sep. 19, 2011), discussing the America Invents Act. I met John when I lived in Philadelphia in the 90s, when we were both involved with the Freeman Society of Valley Forge (FEE-related), which helped me meet Hans Sennholz and Jacob Hornberger. A former economics professor, he is now a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. For background information on the AIA, see my Mises Academy webinar, The American Invents Act and Patent Reform: The Good, the Meh, and the Ugly (audio and slides).

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 104. This is my appearance as a Guest panelist on This Week in Law, Episode 97 (Feb. 4, 2011), entitled “God Creates. We Patent.” Brief description: "It's a Bing trap, Internet rights, tracking data persistence, attorney motivation, abolishing IP, life patents, and more", such as net neutrality (see: A Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality). My previous blog post about this is here. The video is below; it’s also on the TWiL page for this episode; you can also subscribe to the audio or video podcast for this show; here’s their FaceBook page. TWiL is part of Leo Laporte’s impressive and growing private TWiT (This Week in Tech) netcast network (I regularly listen to the TWiT network’s This Week in Tech, MacBreak Weekly, and TWiL, in addition to my  some of my other favorite podcasts, such as Mises podcasts, Lew Rockwell, and the Slate Culture Gabfest and Slate Political Gabfest.) In addition to Howell and me, there were two other IP/tech lawyers. We had a very civil and wid

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 103. This is my appearance as a Guest panelist on This Week in Law, Episode 133 (Oct. 13, 2011), entitled "Beyonce, Bad Laws, and Breastaurants." The two hosts and fellow guest panelist were all lawyers. We had a wide-ranging two-hour discussion about a variety of legal and policy matters, including a number of IP problems covering patent, copyright, trademark, and even trade secret. We also discussed the Occupy Wall Street movement, Apple's use of IP to squelch clones and competition, copyright threats against Beyonce for her dance moves, and many others as indicated by the links on the episode's show notes. The video is below; it's also on the TWiL page for this episode; you can also subscribe to the audio or video podcast for this show; here's their FaceBook page. A few more backup links and points below about some of the issues discussed. At one point we got into a discussion of Obama's use of a signing statement to approve ACTA as an "executive agreement" (see AC

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 102. I was reminded recently of the excellent Canadian libertarian podcast Ed and Ethan: The Voice of Liberty in Canada when they were guest co-hosts on a recent episode of the superb Freedom Feens radio show. And that I had been a guest about a year ago. Here is my November 2012 appearance on their show, which I think was a very good and concise IP discussion. My segment is podcast here, which starts at aboot 57 minutes into the full episode, which is also linked below. The audio quality is very good on this one. I have to say—sometimes I give good podcast. And this was one of those times. “Intellectual Property Law in Canada,” Ed and Ethan Podcast: The voice of liberty in Canada (Nov. 17, 2012) (full MP3; Youtube—link down at present for some reason).

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 101. This was my talk delivered at the Open Science Summit, Mountain View, CA (Oct. 22, 2011), held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. My panel's topic was "The Future (the End?) of 'Intellectual Property.'"  My talk, "IP and the New Mercantilism," is first, and lasts about the first 19 minutes. The slideshow I used (but did not show the audience) is also below. My original title was "IP and the New Mercantilism," but I think a better title is "Property and Science: The Twin Pillars of Prosperity and Civilization—Versus Patent and Copyright." Background: See my posts Open Science Summit Streaming Live; Kinsella on Panel at Open Science Summit. Update: The transcript of my talk is here. If the video embed below does not work, the video of the lecture may be found here. The Future (the End?) of "Intellectual Property" from Open Science Summit on FORA.tv The Future (the End?) of "Intellectual Property" from Open Science Summit on FORA.tv

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 100. Note: Also podcast at PFP116. This is my speech at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Property and Freedom Society (Sept. 22, 2013, Bodrum, Turkey). The video and slides are below. See also the Q&A panel [PFP117], which contains several interchanges between me and Sean Gabb about this issue. See also Sean Gabb's article Stephan Kinsella on Limited Liability: Notes of a Speech Made to the 2013 Meeting in Bodrum of the Property and Freedom Society, to which I intend to reply at a later time. For background, see: Kinsella, Corporate Personhood, Limited Liability, and Double Taxation; In Defense of the Corporation Robert Hessen, In Defense of the Corporation (Hoover 1978) Firms: google various recent Mises University lectures by Peter Klein on the theory of the firm Yaron Brook, “The Corporation” (Ayn Rand Institute, 2007) KOL 026 | FreeDomain Radio with Stefan Molyneux discussing Corporations and Limited Liability Stephan Kinsella, "The Role of the Corpo

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 099. This was my appearance on the Agora I/O: The Liberty Unconference: Open Source Agorism: Prosper Without Patents or Copyrights from 2011. The video(s) are below. Interesting factoid: I was set to do the show, using Justin.tv, but for some reason neither of my MacBooks would work with the Justin.tv interface. I saw an option for "mobile device." It was 5 minutes to showtime. I quickly downloaded Justin.tv app on my iphone, got out a little iPod tripod I had never used, signed in, hit the record button, and voilá--I was on Justin.tv streaming live, using my iphone. I was using my MacBook to watch it live, and to monitor questions typed on a facebook stream by the 45 or so participants. Quite amazing. (There are three videos b/c I had a couple of glitches/crashes and had to re-start my iPhone stream twice.) Watch live video from Agora I/O: Peaceful Evolution on Justin.tv Watch live video from Agora I/O: Peaceful Evolution on Justin.tv Watch live video from Agora

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 098. This is my appearance on the Oct. 19, 2013 Nomad Capitalist show, interviewed by Andrew Henderson. My segment beings at about 17:00. Topics discussed: Austrian economics, intellectual property law, escaping the USA 0:00 Andrew leads off the show, live from Bangkok. He discusses the end of the government shutdown – and how to avoid the next, even more draconian version the US government has up its sleeve. Plus, he shares why the rest of the world doesn’t and shouldn’t care about shenanigans in the US. Andrew discusses how you are not a product of the borders you’re born within; you can define yourself as an individual, not as a government slave. He talks about the upcomingPassport to Freedom event 13:35 Guest: Stephan Kinsella (Twitter) Anarcho-capitalist, liberty activist, and intellectual property lawyer Stephan Kinsella discusses why he believes intellectual property law is a sham and nothing more than crony capitalism. He shares his Austrian economics ideals a

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 097. This is my interview on the Double Crossed radio show with host Chuck Horton. We discussed a variety of intellectual property related issues, some centered on some of my previous speeches and courses, such as “The Intellectual Property Quagmire, or, The Perils of Libertarian Creationism,” Austrian Scholars Conference 2008 and Rethinking Intellectual Property: History, Theory, and Economics,” (Mises Academy, Mar. 22-April 26, 2011) (discussed on the Mises Blog in Study with Kinsella Online and in Rethinking Intellectual Property: Kinsella’s Mises Academy Online Course). See also Karl Fogel on the history of copyright.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 096. This is a show I did Jan. 18, 2012, on WMNF 88.5 Radio, "Live for Liberty with Blake Westlake and Chris Horan," which was just uploaded to YouTube. Chris Horan kindly forwarded the link to me. We had a nice, short interview about the anti-competitive nature of intellectual property law.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 095. This was my appearance on Daniel Rothschild’s youtube channel on Nov. 8, 2013; we discussed a variety of topics, getting really into the nitty-gritty of a lot of aspects of libertarian legal theory. Links to related material below: How We Come To Own Ourselves, Mises Daily (Sep. 7, 2006) (Mises.org blog discussion; audio version) Causation and Aggression (co-authored with Patrick Tinsley), The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, vol. 7, no. 4 (winter 2004): 97-112 Punishment and Proportionality: The Estoppel Approach, 12:1 Journal of Libertarian Studies 51 (Spring 1996) “What Libertarianism Is,” Mises Daily (August 21, 2009) A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, Journal of Libertarian Studies 17, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 11-37 “Argumentation Ethics and Liberty: A Concise Guide,” Mises Daily (May 27, 2011) KOL004 | Interview with Walter Block on Voluntary Slavery KOL018 | “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property,

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 094. This is the audio for episode 004 of Liberty Talk, a weekly Google hangout-based podcast with Jeffrey Tucker and me (Google Plus page; Youtube Channel). [Update: for more on whether bitcoin is ownable property, see this Facebook thread. And see: Tokyo court says bitcoins are not ownable. See also: "in the WSJ article Tax Plan May Hurt Bitcoin, the article notes that legal tender laws are, in fact, jeopardizing BTC. Bitcoins are now classified by the IRS as “property” “instead of” as legal tender money, meaning capital gains taxes are owed on transactions. I mentioned this danger in my talk; a similar problem afflicts the re-adoption of gold or silver as money.  But as I noted in the Q&A to my talk, I am not persuaded that bitcoins are ownable resources—things subject to property rights. The IRS here assumes that something is either money or property. This is one danger of BTC advocates using the language of property rights to describe bitcoins. I would argue that bi

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 093. This is the audio for episode 003 of Liberty Talk, a new weekly-ish Google hangout-based podcast with Jeffrey Tucker and me (Google Plus page; Youtube Channel). This week we talked to Justin Hanners, a fired Auburn, Alabama cop (see Citizens Behind Officer Justin Hanners). He dropped by Jeff's office so we snagged a quick interview. He talks about police corruption and ticket quotas.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 092. This is my appearance on Michael Shanklin’s Triple-V: Voluntary Virtues Vodcast with Michael Shanklin (Oct. 30, 2013). We discussed a variety of topics around IP and other issues, such as Can You Trade Something You Don't Own?, Polycentrism, Contract theory, argumentation ethics, and so on. Some background material for these topics can be found at: A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, Journal of Libertarian Studies 17, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 11-37 KOL 044 | “Correcting some Common Libertarian Misconceptions” (PFS 2011) (see slide 7) KOL 049 | “Libertarian Controversies Lecture 5″ (Mises Academy, 2011) (see slide 15) “Argumentation Ethics and Liberty: A Concise Guide,” Mises Daily (May 27, 2011) The Origin of “Libertarianism” Corporate Personhood, Limited Liability, and Double Taxation KOL 026 | FreeDomain Radio with Stefan Molyneux discussing Corporations and Limited Liability KOL 025 | Triple-V: Voluntary Vir

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 091. This is the audio for episode 002 of Liberty Talk, a new weekly-ish Google hangout-based podcast with Jeffrey Tucker and me (Google Plus page; Youtube Channel). This week we talked to Sheldon Richman about Obamacare and the origin of his anti-IP views. For more, see Sheldon's articles: Sheldon Richman on Intellectual Property versus Liberty Intellectual “Property” Versus Real Property: What Are Copyrights and What Do They Mean for Liberty?, The Freeman (12 June 2009 Patent Nonsense, The American Conservative (Jan. 1, 2012) Slave Labor and Intellectual Property: On a misplaced analogy, The Freeman Online(June 3, 2011) See also the FEE debate Sheldon mentions in the discussion: Intellectual Property Rights Debate; the Paul Cwik piece mentioned is discussed here.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 090. I spoke at Liberty on the Rocks-Houston last night on the topic of intellectual property. Nice crowd and a good time. I touched on a number of matters, from negative servitudes to positive rights. Zoe Russell and others did a great job running/arranging this. This is my own iPhone recording: not great quality, but mostly listenable. A better video/audio version ought to be forthcoming soon. In the meantime.... have fun.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 089.  This is my appearance earlier today (10/23/2013) on  Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock radio show. We talked intellectual property, including libertarian sci-fi author L. Neil Smith's pro-IP views (see The L. Neil Smith – FreeTalkLive Copyright Dispute; Smith, Unanimous Consent and the Utopian Vision or I Dreamed I Was a Signatory In My Maidenform Bra; Shire Society Forum, Topic: L. Neil Smith has Important Shire Business; L. Neil Smith, A New Covenant).   2013-10-23 Hour 2 Stephan Kinsella from Ernest Hancock on Vimeo.