_Michael Perelman teaches economics at California State University,
The dramatic expansion of imaginary property rights represents a
We have no precise measure of the extent of imaginary property, but
While the legal protection of imaginary property might seem
The free-marketeers of the nineteenth century vigorously opposed
At first, business owners tried forming cartels and trusts to hobble
The strengthening of imaginary property rights accelerated once
Today, imaginary property rights claims go far beyond patent
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP),
Absurd claims to informational property rights have been expanding by
One critic of the patent system even succeeded in winning a patent for
To illustrate this point, Richard Stallman, winner of a MacArthur
Imaginary property rights change the nature of competition. Most
For example, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan recently
Let us decode the Chairman's words. For agricultural products, steel,
A few years earlier, Greenspan was emphasizing a different part of the
The world of 1948 was vastly different from the world of 1996. The
In his more recent testimony, Greenspan noted, however, "a firm is
Imaginary property rights are in the process of corrupting society
Between 1995 and 1998, the average annual income for a member of this
Emblematic of the extent of this new distribution of property, in 1999
Perhaps the famous trickle down effect could justify the obscene
For example, virtually no new technology is the product of a single
Imaginary property rights spawn a system of wasteful litigation.
Imaginary property rights also create an atmosphere of secrecy,
While energy sources are the central to maintaining life itself, let
The strengthening of imaginary property rights is perhaps the most
The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden
Guarding the property rights of typical material commodities is
Purveyors of imaginary property implore the government, often with
A frightening, albeit ridiculous, example of this invasiveness came
So here are imaginary property rights that undermines science, burdens the