Post by @GamingChairModel@lemmy.world

2026-09-25 16:40 UTC

is not a property, it’s a state-enforced monopoly Isn’t that what property means? A state enforced monopoly over the subject of that monopoly? Ownership of farmland, a factory, a house, a checking account, a stack of cash, a car, etc., boils down to a state enforced monopoly to control who may use or possess that thing.

Replies (1)

@skarn@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-09-25 18:59

There is a significant distinction. If I have an apple in my hand, I can eat it. If I eat it you don’t. I can’t make it two apples to give you one. We can’t all be eating the same apple. The physical good is finite. Whether there is or isn’t the state, that’s a fact. In this sense, some people call property a natural right, even though anyone who starts with that usually gets way too far way too quickly. Intellectual property is different. With intellectual property you have a right over every copy of a work, that exists or will exist, made by you or anyone else. And you can sell a book away, without a EULA or strings attached, and retain rights over it. None of these exists without a law, and without a state. But it weren’t for copyright, we could make copies of a book, and give them to people who’ll make more copies, and so exponentially until we all have a copy. Copyright also covers derivative works. Can you imagine somebody asserting rights over the cider you made with the apples he sold you? As far as I can tell property has existed in all complex societies I’m aware of. Intellectual property is a recent invention. I’m not at my sharpest, but I hope you see that there is a very fundamental difference between physical property, and intellectual property. In general, this is not controversial.

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