Neoliberal economists were not united behind aggressive intellectual property rights

Evidence

Aggressive IP rights are often assumed to be one feature of the global neoliberal regime snapping into place since the 1970s. According to the dominant reading, because property rights are central to neoliberalism, then IP rights must be too. Yet, as this chapter shows, neoliberals themselves have been far from unanimous on the question of when, how, and even if ideas can be treated as property. If neoliberalism is synonymous with hardline intellectual property rights, what to make of the signatures of MPS members Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Ronald Coase on a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the Copyright Extension Act of 1998? How to explain the fact that Richard Posner, the leading figure of the Law and Economics movement and a member of the Mont Pèlerin Society, has not only suggested that there are “too many patents in America” but cites Hayek in his authoritative work on IP law to the effect that “a slavish application of the concept of property as it has been developed for material things has done a great deal to foster the growth of monopoly and … here drastic reforms may be required if competition is to be made to work”? — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 165

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader project in this book of fracturing the monolithic caricature of neoliberalism — this is a specific doctrinal fracture point on property rights. — connects to: Early MPS neoliberals favored weaker patent rights over stronger ones — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 183; Securing competitive order sometimes led neoliberals to oppose property rights in ideas — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 166; Neoliberal IP orthodoxy was dictated by corporate lobbyists, not market theorists — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 200 (+4 more)
• SEED: The detail that Friedman, Buchanan, and Coase signed an amicus brief against copyright extension is a striking counter-example to the ‘neoliberalism = maximal IP’ stereotype worth a short essay or pointed aside.

Broader Connections

• Securing competitive order sometimes led neoliberals to oppose property rights in ideas #corroborates (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 166
• Early MPS neoliberals favored weaker patent rights over stronger ones #corroborates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 183
• Early neoliberals widely saw patent reform as anti-monopoly competition policy #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 181
• Neoliberal IP orthodoxy was dictated by corporate lobbyists, not market theorists #complicates (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 200