Open Source

It's Rule 5 Sunday!
Set Culture Free
Recently Salon featured an interview with author Robert Levine, entitled "Does culture really want to be free?" Levine has written a new book, Free Ride, on the subject of intellectual property (IP). His subtitle is How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back, the thesis of which is predicated on a misunderstanding of property rights and a poor grasp of economics.

In this essay I'll begin with a brief outline of property rights, explain how IP fails to meet the requirements of tangible property, and refute some of Levine's other fallacies.

Blogging about politics is tough enough. You might as well do the best you can....

Like most people, I used to think intellectual property (IP) was a legitimate property right, yet from time ...

The popular mantra out there (based on lies) is that free markets don't work. Well, tell that to ...

The cyberwar is just more government propaganda designed to take away more of your rights.

There is no cyberwar....

Free markets or government dictate, the choice is yours. Of course, the government will never produce something cool ...

Direct from the Mises Economics Blog, please enjoy your Penalties for Music Piracy ...

Let's talk about the Republican Party ...
The Republican Party has had close to 8 months to get its ...

I've been interested in the whole "intellectual property" issue for a long time, but only started digging into ...

On Monday, reclusive author J.D. Salinger emerged to file a copyright infringement lawsuit against the author and publisher ...

There are countless ways to get yourself involved in the political process while still maintaining your unique individuality.  ...

Although I haven't written much about it yet, there's a reason "open source" is one of the categories here on The Classic Liberal Blog. While too many people and/or industries continue to focus on old (though often "tried and true") business models, even as their results continue to get worse and worse ... open source is quietly changing the economics of our time.

This of course, doesn't mean that the common sense wisdom of economics, most notably Austrian economics, is changing.  But it does mean that how individuals and/or companies interact and exchange with one another IS changing.

Please take 18 minutes and watch Yochai Benkler, author of "The Wealth of Networks," talk ...