What is a free pirate?
Free pirate is a political term (that I just made up!). It describes a person who
- sympathizes with the Swedish Pirate Party Declaration of Principles 3.0,
- favors the abolition of intellectual monopolies,
- and does so from a liberal perspective, guided by a presumption of liberty.
For more details, I recommend two books:
Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty by Randy Barnett, Professor of Legal Theory at Georgetown University (see pp. 259-260, 355)
Against Intellectual Monopoly (draft) by Michele Boldrin, Professor of Economics at University of Minnesota, and David K. Levine, Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis
Boldrin and Levine write:
For centuries, the battle for economic progress has identified with the battle for free trade. In the decades to come, the battle for economic progress will identify, more and more, with the battle against intellectual monopoly. As in the battle for free trade, the first step must consist in destroying the intellectual foundations of the obscurantist postion. Back then the mercantilist fallacy taught that, to become wealthy, a country must regulate trade and strive for trade surpluses. Today, the same fallacy teaches that without intellectual monopoly innovations would be impossible. Our goal here is to demolish that glass house.
-- Against Intellectual Monopoly, Chapter 1, p. 12
The idea for this blog arose from two recent posts and a movie. In the first post, I used the term Barnett pirate. In the second, the term liberal pirate came to mind. Finally, while watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last Saturday, there was a bit of dialogue where the adjective free was applied to pirate. What can I say? It clicked.
This blog has a wiki, from which I hope a short book will grow.
UPDATE: For more details, see Why I am an Abolitionist
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