Libertarianism Today Now Available at Mises.org!

Unfortunately, most mainstream publishers, including mine, don’t share my views on IP and won’t allow that.

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Given your hostility to intellectual property rights, Mr. Huebert, why don't you simply make a digital version of *Libertarianism Today* available for free download?

A wholly consistent advocate of the discontinuation of intellectual property rights – Cory Doctorow – does so with the books he has written. Why not put your own intellectual property in the same condition?
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Given your hostility to intellectual property rights, Mr. Huebert, why don't you simply make a digital version of *Libertarianism Today* available for free download?

A wholly consistent advocate of the discontinuation of intellectual property rights – Cory Doctorow – does so with the books he has written. Why not put your own intellectual property in the same condition?
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Most mainstream publishers, including mine, don’t share my views on IP and won’t allow that.

Inasmuch as Mr. Huebert's publisher won't allow the content of *Libertarianism Today* to be made freely available online (having paid him for that content, and wishing to profit from the sale thereof), it would seem that the denial of intellectual property rights contained in this book is advanced purely for the sake of argument.

It would be intensely interesting to listen to Mr. Huebert discuss this issue with someone who generates salable creative content for a living, and is dependent upon consumers' purchase of his copyrighted material to keep a roof over his family's head and food on the table.

Aesop's fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs comes immediately to mind. When a human being is denied the right to compensation for the service he has rendered in writing (or publishing) a book – like *Libertarianism Today* – what incentive is there to produce such material? Self-aggrandizement? Government subsidization? The possibility that it might impress members of the opposite sex?

“How many barrels will thy [ego-boost] yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market.”

But, then, Melville penned those words in the expectation of getting paid for it, didn't he?

What is the basis is for your assumption that people who write things are entitled to make a living from them? Many great writers of fiction and non-fiction have had day jobs. It's easy to think of many reasons why people who don't expect to make a lot of money from publishing would write books: for example, the enjoyment of writing, the desire to spread ideas, or the additional career benefits it may bring. Apparently no one had to pay you to motivate you to leave your comments here.