> If you invent the wheel, then I
> independently re-invent the wheel, why should I have to pay you
> royalties for permission to use an idea that was born in my own brain?

> "Some sort" of government system? One alternative for funding of such a
> system. User pays,

> A person has a natural right to control what he produces. Take away
> that right and he'll stop producing it. By the same reasoning, a
> person has a right to any property that he obtains by voluntary
> exchange. Without that right, most products would not be produced.
>

> Land represents a different class of product. Nobody produces land.
> However, undeveloped land which is out of contact with society is
> worthless. Land acquires value only by association with a society...

>All production is a result of human thought and creativity. But
>inventions, books, and software constitute a unique type of product,
>called "intellectual property." Ayn Rand, being a writer and one
>with an exceptional appreciation of human reason and creativity, put
>particular emphasis on the sanctity of intellectual property. But
>I'm not sure she was right. If you invent the wheel, then I
>independently re-invent the wheel,

>why should I have to pay you
>royalties for permission to use an idea that was born in my own brain?

>It seems like I would be giving up my most basic property right - my
>ownership of my own mind.

> "Ray Eston Smith Jr" yahoo.com> wrote:
>

>>All production is a result of human thought and creativity. But
>>inventions, books, and software constitute a unique type of product,
>>called "intellectual property." Ayn Rand, being a writer and one
>>with an exceptional appreciation of human reason and creativity, put
>>particular emphasis on the sanctity of intellectual property. But
>>I'm not sure she was right. If you invent the wheel, then I
>>independently re-invent the wheel,

>
> Fine so far.
>

> Ray Eston Smith Jr wrote:
>

>> If you invent the wheel, then I
>> independently re-invent the wheel, why should I have to pay you
>> royalties for permission to use an idea that was born in my own brain?

>
> In reality you can only own what you alone can control and protect and
> when, or if, that protection requires a third party to become involved,
> e.g. the use of police via the sanctity of government legislation,
> because in effect an accusation of theft is being made, then the burdon
> of proof rests upon he who asserts the wrong-doing, to objectively
> prove that the other person has initiated the wrong-doing by stealing
> his idea or invention. In fact this process already happens without too
> much of a problem, which doesn't mean that an odd unjustice...

> A person has a natural right to control what he produces. Take away
> that right and he'll stop producing it. By the same reasoning, a
> person has a right to any property that he obtains by voluntary
> exchange. Without that right, most products would not be produced.

>A person has a natural right to control what he produces. Take away
> that right and he'll stop producing it. By the same reasoning, a
> person has a right to any property that he obtains by voluntary
> exchange. Without that right, most products would not be produced.
>
> Land represents a different class of product. Nobody produces land.
> However, undeveloped land which is out of contact with society is
> worthless. Land acquires value only by association with a society of
> productive individuals. Thus, by creating the value of the land, that
> society acquires a natural write to own it, except a "society"
> cannot own anything. Ownership derives from then natural property
> rights of individuals. As free individuals trade with each other, the
> land around them acquires value, which enters into their trade
> agreements as a common recognition that a particular individual owns a
> particular piece of land.
>
> All production is a result of human thought and creativity. But
> inventions, books, and software constitute a unique type of product, ...

> Maybe my question is historical rather than philosophical. In actual
> practice, how odd are the injustices, how much shit happens? How
> often do big corporations with high-powered lawyers steal ideas of
> independent inventors? How often do big corporations get patents on
> ideas that were "in the air" as a result of ideas being bounced around
> by hundreds of individuals?