Today is designated “Intellectual Property Day” although its not clear who did the designating or what they hoped to achieve by the exercise.
It seems that a worthwhile use of the day then is to reflect on the conventional narratives which justify “intellectual property”. When I first encountered ip it was presented as a rather arcane technical subject, of interest only to specialist practitioners. What littel justification was advanced is more or less the same set of justifications advanced today, but too often there is an arguement by assumption, that it is a foregone conclusion that intellectual property is a good thing, and that the more “ip” the better. This is often couched in terms of pragmatism, with a claim that it is value free. John Maynard Keynes had the measure of such claims.
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”
