Why We Should Get Rid Of Intellectual Property

You've probably heard the term "intellectual property" before. If not, it basically means you can lay claim to an idea and prevent anyone else from using it, building upon it, or even creating something similar. Why do we have these laws, and how deep does the problem go?

How Intellectual Property Stifles Innovation – Second Thought

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Citations and Further Reading:

Insulin costs less than $10 to produce

1 in 5 Americans ration their insulin

Insulin prices increase by 15-17% every year

Insulin used to cost $20, now it costs $300

Monthly insulin costs exceed $1000

90% of the insulin market is controlled by 3 companies

3 companies keep insulin out of the public domain

COVID vaccine manufacturers hire 100 lobbyists to protect their monopoly

WTO waiver delays

Oxfam, 1 death in a rich country, four in a poor country from COVID

COVID vaccine manufacturers benefitted from IP waivers

America was built on IP theft

The US complains about IP theft today

TRIPS benefits the Global North

IP more profitable than traditional business

Four Futures by Peter Frase

Tech companies file thousands of patents a year and weaponize them

Collective funds idea

Crowdfunding idea

Fraud prevention patent office idea

Socialism and intellectual property

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About Second Thought:
Second Thought is a channel devoted to education and analysis of current events from a Leftist perspective. Welcome!

[paranoah]

The insulin cost is probably why sepsis is more common in the US than it should be. That and the fact that people are just afraid of going to the hospital because of the cost of medical care

[SimGunther]

"Don't worry, this IP stuff will protect the little guy"
- big guy stifling competition by owning literally ALL THE IP

[spiderwrist]

As a type 1 diabetic I'm in a permanent state of being grateful I wasn't born in the US.
Every so often here (in Australia) it comes out that there are some politicians who think we should have an American style healthcare system and my blood runs cold.

[_TSC_]

Wow as an artist I’ve always seen IP as one of our holy grails(and we still get our art stolen and copied) this was honestly very eye opening

[chinmaydeshpande]

Love this. The most common reason given by corporations to keep IP is to offset the cost of research that went into developing a certain drug. But the research in industry is HEAVILY reliant on the research in academic institutions like universities, which are funded by public money. So not only do companies not own the entirety of their innovations, but they insult the general public further by charging exorbitant prices for the drugs that their taxes helped develop in part.

[LaCoalicion.]

Here in México they practically give insuline away at public hospitals if you need it. The only downside is a 10 to 20 minutes line.

[melloncollic]

Thank you for this! As a nurse in Europe it's baffling to me how insulin in the US can be that expensive. And it's not as if those pharma giants don't make enormous profits over here.

[philipm]

As a diabetic, I'm grateful for you covering insulin. Honest it made my day when Eli Lilly's stock got tanked from that tweet. Any other diabetics in this comment section, hit me up I'm starting to organize diabetics for insulin and want to raise awareness about the Open Insulin Foundation, we gotta get them the funds to finish their critical work.

[Ultravis]

Engineer here, one of those who would benefit from patents, a form of IP. I always thought this through my entire career! That IP was a huge hindrance to technological progression.

[DavidRichardson]

They don't kick away the ladder - they pull it up. Kicking it down means someone can lift it back up, and they can't let that happen. They'd rather pull the ladder up, break it into sections, and use those to build their own fence around the upper perimeter of their ivory towers.

Piracy is basically digging underground and through the foundation to get in - it works, but it is not effective beyond small-scale quasi-immediacy. What we need is the equivalent of just dynamiting the entirety of the ivory towers - it gets rid of those eyesore and gives us access to reclaimed land as well as resources to repurpose.

[JoeJoeTater]

As someone who spends 8 hours a day designing new scientific instruments, I would absolutely love to see the end of IP. I want to just make stuff without the fear of investors and lawyers deciding to suddenly ruin my life.

[almazkharrasov]

This topic is of huge importance and often overlooked when it comes to discussing why it's not only about who holds means of production but even more about who's allowed to even think about trying to hold it. All they'll say 'if you don't like capitalism then do it all yourself, innovate, create etc', but that's exactly where the problem is: patent owners won't allow you to do so. People don't even comprehend the scale of actual slavery happening under capitalism and its means to assert itself as 'indispensable'.

[den]

Medical intellectual property should be illegal

[davidnelson]

Holy nuts I had the same ideas about changing how research gets funded. Those that ARENT selected by the public should be made available to individuals to invest in for research that is valuable but doesn’t immediately produce a sellable product. I really really like the idea that all info is open to the public

[AdredenGaming]

You should make a video on how scientific journals act as gate keepers of scientific knowledge and how this prevents scientifically inclined people from getting into a market by stifling innovation. I'm looking to build some things that use sub ambient thermal radiation paint for a project and just getting the one paper I wanted was tricky. It was also only possible because I was an alumni of the university. I was given a temporary pass to use at the university library its self. But papers can easily cost more then a persons hourly wage and doesn't go back to fund the science either. To me if your going to profit from something you should at least invest back into it. Else you reduce the amount of science inspired people and slowly reduce the potential pool of innovation your publication draws on to make said money.

[FabulousFadz]

A couple of years ago I read a heartbreaking story about a guy who was about to get married and had to make a choice between getting his insulin or paying for a suit for the wedding. He got a suit and black market insulin and died shortly after due to complications related to the insulin he took. No one should have to make such choices. *Also* I just got the book mentioned here, Four Futures

[Ermude]

Saw Adam Neely's video on this last week where he also argues and show how destructive it is for the musical art. And I fully agree. Intellectual property is pure gatekeeping.

[PosiDoesMore]

“IP abolitionist” is the sickest title I’ve ever seen someone use

[lonestarr]

A patent office solely to keep track of inventors is an excellent idea. I have often wondered about the fact that we know so many inventors from ye olden days, but hardly any name of any actual person comes to mind when thinking about modern technology. Just today I tried to find out who invented the .webp image format. The answer: Google did. I strongly doubt that an abstract entity is capable of inventing anything.

[jerbear]

I am coming from years as a staunch ancap business owner. You do a fantastic job of presenting points in a logical way that doesn't make me feel like a prick just for believing a certain way or having believed that way in the past. You have moved a pretty solid rock a pretty good distance. I was daring you to change my mind on this one and maybe I am just not as stubborn as I used to be. Good job.