Rights

Maybe it is just me, but I think the juxtaposition of two recent Supreme Court decisions is highly disturbing. The intellectual property rights of corporations are so important that any technology that could conceivably impinge on them should be suppressed – literally or by forcing inventors to lawyer up before they even know what to do. Your right to keep your own house if a corporation wants to develop the land, however, isn’t so important. The theoretical taking of imaginary property is to be avoided; the literal taking of your physical property is to be encouraged. This strikes me as completely fucked.

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Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

6 thoughts on “Rights”

  1. As an extreme liberal, I was amazed recently when I found myself agreeing with a conservative talk show host on this recent supreme court decision regarding imminent domain for commercial development. He kept saying that liberals were behind it. Who are these liberals? Not me.

    I think we ought to charge property tax for intellectual property, this way we can raise a lot of money without kicking old ladies out of their homes. Failure to pay intellectual property tax would result in the intellectual property becoming public domain.

  2. I think at some point in the last Century, corporations were considered individuals and therefore had rights (someone help me recall the ruling).
    If a corporation had no rights, could it hold a copyright?

    As for imminent domain, the other way to move people off their land is to raise property tax. On St Simons Is, GA where I grew up, the property taxes were raised on the African Americans who had owned their land for decades – it was called ‘taxing them off the Island’. The demand for property on the Island drove this practice. Same thing I imagine on Hilton Head. American dream my ass..

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