Freedom, Creativity, and Intellectual Property
If you are like me, sometimes you need a hotdog loaded with sauerkraut. If you live in Berkeley, you will go to the Top Dog restaurant on Durant Avenue. Being Berkeley, the Top Dog does not only sell food, it also dispenses politics, and its politics are libertarian. A sign on the wall reads, “Legalize Freedom.” This phrase suggests that law frees us by its presence, not its absence. Freedom combines the presence of possibilities (positive liberty) and the absence of prohibitions (negative liberty). Providing positive possibilities and limiting prohibitions is how the state legalizes freedom.
This essay concerns legalizing economic freedom, especially through intellectual property law. Economic freedom provides conditions under which people can be creative in their work. Creativity is valuable intrinsically because of its connection to self expression, and it valuable instrumentally because of its connection to innovation and growth. Creativity is so valuable intrinsically and instrumentally that we need to rehabilitate economic freedom as a human right, especially with respect to innovation.
