William Patry no longer publishes my comments on his blog, so I guess this is his inscrutably tacit way of encouraging me to post them on my blog instead.

Commenting upon Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand of Copyright

Crosbie Fitch said…

The invisible hand is fine if the market is free. However, it’s going to behave as a fist in a gauntlet if some of its players are granted supernatural power (in excess of that which nature has imbued in mere mortals), e.g. by privileging immortal corporations as if having the natural rights of individuals, and by granting them monopolies, the privileges of copyright and patent.

The mystery is not why corporations exploit the powers and privileges granted to them, but why intelligent men such as yourself persist in believing that such empowered corporations and the monopolies granted to them can possibly operate in the public good, and perversely increase rather than decrease mankind’s ability to share and build upon his art, knowledge, and technology.

That is the mystery.

A lesser mystery is why you believe you do your audience a service by protecting them from the argument I present.