ABSTRACT
A classic defender of intellectual property and intellectual property rights is Lysander Spooner. Writing in the late 1800s, Spooner stated in clear and uncompromising terms the case for intellectual property rights. In addition to objecting to the labor view of justification of intellectual property, Edwin Hettinger rejects the dignity/agency argument for intellectual property rights. Owning the fruits of one's labor, including having control of them in the marketplace, is not obviously necessary, he says, for one's dignity, security, privacy, or agency. Consequently, he claims, the case for intellectual property rights has not been made. Proponents of intellectual property and intellectual property rights have argued that one's mental creations are still the result of an agent's labor and, as such and for the same reasons, are the property of that agent. The notion and justification given concerning property is utilitarian.
