Intellectual Property

The name "property" on an idea does not make the idea property. Property requires scarcity. Agents can share ideas without a loss to the first maker. To prevent other agents from the use of their own resources, when they make a pattern again, is coercion, not protection. Force gives patents, copyrights, and monopolies of that type. Those monopolies make artificial scarcity and punish independent discovery. They reward lawyers and the holders of the monopolies, not makers. Three things keep real innovation safe: be first, be better, and have the trust of others. Threats of violence against persons who use their own minds and materials do not keep innovation safe.