The Brownstone Show - Episode 17 - Stephan Kinsella

About this episode

Jeffrey Tucker interviews Stephan Kinsella about the implications of defamation law and its relationship to intellectual property rights.

Jeffrey Tucker sits down with Stephan Kinsella...libertarian attorney, author of the seminal 2001 essay “Against Intellectual Property”, and the massive treatise “Legal Foundations of a Free Society”...for a provocative discussion on why defamation (libel and slander) law should be rejected as just another form of intellectual property right. Kinsella argues that reputation is not ownable property. What others think of you cannot be controlled or turned into a legal entitlement. Defamation law, like patents, copyrights, and trademarks, rests on the flawed idea that the state should protect intangible “rights” through force. He explains how these laws create chilling effects, perverse incentives, and actually amplify the harm of false speech rather than reduce it. Topics covered include: * Why intellectual property (including trademarks and defamation) is incompatible with true property rights and free markets * The historical and common-law roots of defamation and how it morphed into reputation-as-property * How the existence of defamation lawsuits gives lies more credibility (”If it weren’t true, he would have sued”) * Free speech, threats, and the limits of state power *…

People in this episode

Host: Jeffrey Tucker

Guest: Stephan Kinsella

Topics covered

• defamation law
• intellectual property
• free speech
• reputation
• libertarianism
• legal rights

Keywords

• defamation
• libel
• slander
• intellectual property
• free markets
• reputation
• free speech
• legal entitlement

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Against Intellectual Property, Legal Foundations of a Free Society

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