The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Note.
• Part I: The Law of Intellectual Property.
• Chapter I.: The Law of Nature In Regard to Intellectual Property.
• Section I.: The Right of Property In Ideas to Be Proved By Analogy.
• Section II.: What Is Wealth?
• Section III.: What Is Property?
• Section IV.: What Is the Right of Property?
• Section V.: What Things Are Subjects of Property?
• Section VI.: How Is the Right of Property Acquired.
• Section VII.: What Is the Foundation of the Right of Property?
• Section VIII.: How Is the Right of Property Transferred?
• Section IX.: Conclusions From the Preceding Principles.
• Chapter II.: Objections Answered.
• Section I.: Objection First.
• Section II.: Objection Second.
• Section III.: Objection Third.
• Section IV.: Objection Fourth.
• Section V.: Objection Fifth.
• Section VI.: Objection Sixth.
• Section VII.: Objection Seventh.
• Section VIII.: Objection Eighth.
• Section IX.: Objection Ninth.
• Section X.: Objection Tenth.
• Section XI.: Objection Eleventh.
• Section XII.: Objection Twelfth.
• Section XIII.: Objection Thirteenth.
• Section XIV.: Objection Fourteenth.
• Section XV.: Objection Fifteenth.
• Chapter III.: Perpetuity and Descent of Intellectual Property.
• Section I.: Perpetuity of Intellectual Property.
• Section II.: Descent of Intellectual Property.
• Chapter IV.: The Sale of Ideas.
• Chapter V.: The Policy of Perpetuity In Intellectual Property.
• Part II: The Common Law of England. (vol. I)
• Chapter VI.: The Common Law of England Relative to Intellectual Property.
• Section I.: What Is the Common Law of England?
• Section II.: Why the Common Law Right of Property In Ideas Has Not Been More Fully Acknowledged.
• Section III.: Review of the Case of Millar Vs. Taylor.
• Section IV.: Review of the Case of Donaldson and Another, Vs. Becket and Another.

SECTION III.

What is Property?

Property is simply wealth, that is possessed—that has an owner; in contradistinction to wealth, that has no owner, but lies exposed, unpossessed, and ready to be converted into property, by whomsoever chooses to make it his own.

All property is wealth; but all wealth is not property. A very small portion of the wealth in the world has any owner. It is mostly unpossessed. Of the wealth in the ocean, for example, only an infinitesimal part ever becomes property. Man occasionally takes possession of a fish, or a shell, leaving all the rest of the ocean’s wealth without an owner.

A somewhat larger proportion, but still a small proportion, of the wealth that lies in and upon the land, is property. Of the forests, the mines, the fruits, the animals, the atmosphere, a small part only has ever became property.

Of intellectual wealth, too, doubtless a very minute portion of all that is susceptible of acquisition, and possession, has ever been acquired—that is, has ever become property. Of all the truths, and of all the knowledge, which will doubtless sometime be possessed, how little is now possessed.