Kinsella On Liberty

[email protected] (Kinsella On Liberty)

Austro-Anarchist Libertarian Legal Theory

  • KOL449 | Together Strong IP Discussion (Matthew Sands of Nations of Sanity feat Econ Bro))
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 449. My discussion/interview by Matthew Sands of the Nations of Sanity project as part of his “Together Strong” debate series. https://youtu.be/igflMs3VJPM?si=3MBYzu9cmeth4LlH
    22 November 2024, 9:40 pm
  • KOL448 | Trademarking the Infinite Banking Concept?
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 448. I was interviewed by Logan Hertz, of Hazeltine LLC, about attempts by the Nelson Nash Institute, they of the poorly-named "Infinite Banking" concept, to use trademark to bully competitors. I discuss the general problem with IP and then apply it to trademark, and provide suggestions as to more "ethical" ways of using trademark and IP in an IP-world. See also Logan's LinkedIn post. For more, see: Do Business Without Intellectual Property. https://youtu.be/EezJNq-FXQc?si=zPY2QdgLqeqqnf0-
    20 November 2024, 6:01 am
  • KOL448 | David Pearce (Tufty the Cat) on nChain and Patent Law
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 448. This is my discussion with European patent attorney David Pearce, of the Tufty the Cat European IP blog (twitter). He and I were co-founders and members of the Advisory Council for the Open Crypto Alliance (2020–22). We discuss Craig Wright, nChain and bitcoin related patents, and so on (see video below). https://youtu.be/3B1R_aTdQ0I https://youtu.be/AJmPrbQ4NQU?si=yAGKMU590r6Vac4i
    20 November 2024, 6:01 am
  • KOL447 | Audio: Law and Intellectual Property in a Stateless Society
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 447. This is from the show "Axioms of Liberty," which has another episode about my IP writing. This time, it's a reading of "Law and Intellectual Property in a Stateless Society."
    19 November 2024, 6:10 am
  • KOL446 | Audio: Intellectual Property and Libertarianism
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 446. This is from the show "Axioms of Liberty," which has another episode about my IP writing. This time, it's a reading of "Intellectual Property and Libertarianism."
    17 November 2024, 7:00 am
  • KOL445 | Audio: Is Intellectual Property Legitimate? Three Essays
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 445. The show "Axioms of Liberty" has an episode about my IP writing, including readings of three early pieces: First, one of my earliest writings, Stephan Kinsella, "Letter on Intellectual Property Rights," IOS Journal 5, no. 2 (June 1995), pp. 12-13, and followed by David Kelley's response. Next, “Is Intellectual Property Legitimate?”, first published in the Pennsylvania Bar Association Intellectual Property Newsletter 1 (Winter 1998): 3 and republished in the Federalist Society’s Intellectual Property Practice Group Newsletter, vol. 3, Issue 3 (Winter 2000). And finally, "In Defense of Napster and Against the Second Homesteading Rule," LewRockwell.com (Sept. 4, 2000). I am not sure who this podcaster is, but he has my gratitude.
    15 November 2024, 9:22 pm
  • 1 hour 56 minutes
    KOL444 | Property Rights, Bitcoin, Ideas & Fungibility, with AlexAnarcho
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 444. I had forgotten about this conversation with "AlexAnarcho" back in May 2024. Here it is. Property rights, ideas & fungibility w/ Stephan Kinsella released 05/02/2024 Stephan Kinsella is a pioneer on the topic of intellectual property (IP). His arguments against IP also carry over to the cyberspace. Can you even "own" Bitcoin? After all, it is just a number on an elliptic curve...
    31 October 2024, 9:59 pm
  • KOL443 | Abortion: A Radically Decentralist Approach (PFS 2024)
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 443. “Abortion: A Radically Decentralist Approach,” 2024 Annual Meeting, Property and Freedom Society, Bodrum, Turkey (Sep. 22, 2024). This will also be podcast soon at the Property and Freedom Podcast as PFP284. See: “Abortion: A Radically Decentralist Approach” (PFS 2024). Update: see Christos Armoutidis, "Preargumentation Ethics and the Issue of Abortion," J. Libertarian Stud. 28, no.1 (2024); and Oscar Grau, "On Argumentation Ethics, Human Nature, and Law," in A Life in Liberty: Liber Amicorum in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, edited by Jörg Guido Hülsmann & Stephan Kinsella (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2024). https://youtu.be/v9bDRDD2wWU Panel discussion: https://youtu.be/vFCZLT4tMY4 Notes below, followed by Youtube's automatic transcript. Abortion: A Radically Decentralist Approach Stephan Kinsella Property and Freedom Society 2024 Annual Meeting Bodrum, Turkey September 19–24, 2024 Alright, let’s have as much fun as we can with a topic like this. Contentious issues among libertarians: Anarchy vs. Minarchy Forms of state: monarchy vs. democracy Open borders vs. mass immigration Intellectual Property (we are winning this one) Israel vs. Gaza Ukraine vs. Russia Abortion: Pro-choice and Pro-Life I’ve changed my own mind a bit on this issue, after becoming a parent: from pro-choice. to more sympathetic to pro-life arguments, and to my current decentralist view Traditionally libertarians have tended to be pro-choice, including virtually all Objectivists, though there were always some minority pro-life voices (e.g. Doris Gordon of L4L). In recent years many seem to be more conservative, and more friendly to religion, and many more opposed to abortion than in the past. The LP removed its pro-choice plank in Reno in 2022 as part of the Mises Caucus takeover, the “Reno Reset,” arguing that the issue is not settled and each candidate should be able to adopt their own position on this issue. On some issues it seems possible to make progress. Many libertarians come from conservatism, or sometimes leftism, moving at first towards libertarian minarchism and then eventually to libertarian anarchism. I changed my mind on the IP issue and have managed to persuade a large number of people to adopt the anti-IP position. Views change on the issue of open borders and immigration and on particular issues like Israel vs. Gaza and Russia v. Ukraine. But it seems almost impossible for anyone to change someone else’s mind on the abortion issue. The fact that this issue seems intractable, often rooted in deep lifestyle preferences or religious beliefs, is relevant, I think to how this issue is best solved in a political-legal sense. See Loren E. Lomasky, Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 91: “The intractability of the dispute … may itself be philosophically significant.” There are the well-known arguments Pro-choice There is the modern, or feminist, argument: it’s my body. Of course the response is that there is a baby inside which complicates the matter For this reason even most pro-choice people do not not favor legality until birth Ayn Rand: “abortion is a moral right-which should be left to the sole discretion of the woman involved.” (“Of Living Death,” The Objectivist, Oct. 1968, 6) In Rand’s view, opposition to abortion arises from a failure to grasp both the context of rights and the imposition that child-bearing places on women. As she put it: “A piece of protoplasm has no rights-and no life in the human sense of the term. One may argue about the later stages of a pregnancy, but the essential issue concerns only the first three months.” So even Randians recognize difficulty in the later stages of pregnancy Pro-life Then there is the religious-based pro-life argument
    22 September 2024, 9:55 am
  • KOL442 | Together Strong Debate vs. Walter Block on Voluntary Slavery (Matthew Sands of Nations of Sanity)
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 442. This is a debate between me and Walter Block about voluntary slavery contracts, hosted by Matthew Sands of the Nations of Sanity project as part of his "Together Strong" debate series. (See previous episode KOL426) Unedited transcript (from Youtube) below. https://youtu.be/x6ecMmBpGs8?si=veUW9EnXhwujEAo1 Notes: For further discussion of this topic, see: chapters 9–11, from Legal Foundations of a Free Society (2024; LFFS), namely "A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability," "Inalienability and Punishment: A Reply to George Smith," and "Selling Does Not Imply Ownership, and Vice-Versa: A Dissection" Re the "Zombicide" and psychosurgery comments, see ch. 10, text at n.37, citing Randy E. Barnett The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law, 2d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 78 & n. 39 See also, on this, Randy E. Barnett, “Rights and Remedies in a Consent Theory of Contract,” in R.G. Frey & C. Morris, eds., Liability and Responsibility: Essays in Law and Morals (Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 157; idem, “Contract Remedies and Inalienable Rights” in “Symposium on Philosophy and Law,” Social Policy and Philosophy 4, no. 1 (1986): 179–202, p. 188; In addition to Walter Block and Robert Nozick, libertarian philosopher Gerard Casey apparently agrees with Block that voluntary slavery contracts are legitimate and enforceable. See Gerard Casey, Libertarian Anarchy: Against the State (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012), ch. 6, n.6: “… after a conversation with Walter Block on the topic of voluntary slavery, I am persuaded that there can be no legitimate objection to that principle’s encompassing specific performance also.” My paper, The Title-Transfer Theory of Contract (Papian Press Working Paper #1) KOL004 | Interview with Walter Block on Voluntary Slavery and Inalienability Other than Block and Nozick, Gerard Casey also seems to favor voluntary slavery: “Can You Own Yourself?“, Research Depository UCD Dublin (Dec. 2011) A few comments. African Slavery Walter favors voluntary slavery but not involuntary slavery;  this was one reason he sued the New York Times for defamation, since they claimed he supported slavery (if I recall correctly; 1, 2, 3). But how do we know that all the African slaves in antebellum America were involuntary slaves? Is it established that every African shipped to the US from Africa went against their will? What if they heard life was better in America, and they volunteered to go even knowing they would be enslaved. Wouldn't such a slavery contract be enforceable in Walter's view of slavery? Or take another example. Suppose Jones, owner of a plantation in Louisiana, owns a slave Toby, but he starts to feel bad about slavery and he manumits Toby, and tells him to leave. Toby says he has no money, no food, and he doesn't want to wander around in Louisiana where he might be attacked or enslaved again, and says he would prefer to just stay on Jones's plantation and work for him. Jones says well okay but only if you sell yourself to me and be my slave. So Toby sells himself to Jones. Wouldn't this be legitimate and enforceable, according to Walter's theory? Forced Sex with a Prostitute Walter says that if you sell yourself into slavery, then if you try to run away you are stealing the property of your owner. He is entitled to use force against you since you are disobeying him. Now around 52:13, Mathew asks Walter about my hypothetical about kissing a girl. I had explained that it's not assault/battery or aggression if you kiss a girl if she consents. If during dinner she promises to let you kiss her when you drop her off, and you do, it's also not consent, since her last communication set up a sort of standing presumption. As I write in ch. 9 of LFFS, Part III.C.1: If a girl promises a kiss at the end of the date and the boy...
    18 September 2024, 2:35 am
  • KOL441 | The Bitcoin Standard Podcast with Saifedean Ammous: Legal Foundations of a Free Society, Property Rights, Intellectual Property
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 441. This is Episode 238 of The Bitcoin Standard Podcast, with Dr. Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard. From his shownotes: Legal Scholar Stephan Kinsella joins to discuss his new book, Legal Foundations of a Free Society, in which he discusses libertarianism as a system for determining legitimate property rights, why property rights are important, and the problem with intellectual property rights.. https://youtu.be/l-0IG38raGw?si=NNCOa3-AKn1YkQl-
    10 September 2024, 6:48 pm
  • KOL440 | The Rational Egoist (Michael Liebowitz): Debating the Moral Status of Intellectual Property: Part IIb
    Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 440. My appearance on The Rational Egoist: Debating the Moral Status of Intellectual Property with Stephan Kinsella: Part IIb.  (Spotify) Shownotes: The Rational Egoist: Concluding the Intellectual Property Debate with Stephan Kinsella (Part 2 of 2) In this final episode of a two-part series, host Michael Liebowitz concludes his engaging debate with Stephan Kinsella, a libertarian patent attorney and author, on the moral and legal status of intellectual property. Building on the groundwork laid in the previous discussion, Michael and Kinsella delve further into the core arguments surrounding IP rights, examining their effects on creativity, innovation, and property law. The episode offers compelling insights into both sides of the debate, providing a thorough exploration of one of the most contested issues in legal and economic theory. Tune in for the conclusion of this thought-provoking exchange that challenges established viewpoints and offers fresh perspectives on intellectual property. https://youtu.be/mMa-Cbyq34w?si=_x1_q8VoeFuVJSvO
    29 August 2024, 3:16 pm
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