Piracy without the lawbreaking

Meaty:

One of the recurring internecine debates in the world of libertarian tech policy is over the philosophical status of copyright. On one side, you’ve got the camp that regards copyright as no different from any other kind of property right. People in this category tend to regard peer-to-peer file sharing as simple theft, and they often support draconian measures to ensure peoples’ “property rights” are protected, just as we would do if there were a rash of burglaries. On the other side, you have libertarians who regard copyright as a limited government monopoly that’s been granted for the pragmatic purpose of encouraging innovation. Folks in this camp tend not to think that copyright deserves the same level of strong enforcement we give to tangible property rights, and they tend to be more ambivalent about file sharing. You’ll often hear people in this latter camp talk about the need for copyright industries to find new business models that will be more resilient in the face of competition from peer-to-peer networks.