Kinsella On Liberty

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 096. This is a show I did Jan. 18, 2012, on WMNF 88.5 Radio, "Live for Liberty with Blake Westlake and Chris Horan," which was just uploaded to YouTube. Chris Horan kindly forwarded the link to me. We had a nice, short interview about the anti-competitive nature of intellectual property law.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 095. This was my appearance on Daniel Rothschild’s youtube channel on Nov. 8, 2013; we discussed a variety of topics, getting really into the nitty-gritty of a lot of aspects of libertarian legal theory. Links to related material below: How We Come To Own Ourselves, Mises Daily (Sep. 7, 2006) (Mises.org blog discussion; audio version) Causation and Aggression (co-authored with Patrick Tinsley), The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, vol. 7, no. 4 (winter 2004): 97-112 Punishment and Proportionality: The Estoppel Approach, 12:1 Journal of Libertarian Studies 51 (Spring 1996) “What Libertarianism Is,” Mises Daily (August 21, 2009) A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, Journal of Libertarian Studies 17, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 11-37 “Argumentation Ethics and Liberty: A Concise Guide,” Mises Daily (May 27, 2011) KOL004 | Interview with Walter Block on Voluntary Slavery KOL018 | “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society: Lecture 1: Libertarian Basics: Rights and Law” (Mises Academy, 2011)

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 094. This is the audio for episode 004 of Liberty Talk, a weekly Google hangout-based podcast with Jeffrey Tucker and me (Google Plus page; Youtube Channel). [Update: for more on whether bitcoin is ownable property, see this Facebook thread. And see: Tokyo court says bitcoins are not ownable. See also: "in the WSJ article Tax Plan May Hurt Bitcoin, the article notes that legal tender laws are, in fact, jeopardizing BTC. Bitcoins are now classified by the IRS as “property” “instead of” as legal tender money, meaning capital gains taxes are owed on transactions. I mentioned this danger in my talk; a similar problem afflicts the re-adoption of gold or silver as money.  But as I noted in the Q&A to my talk, I am not persuaded that bitcoins are ownable resources—things subject to property rights. The IRS here assumes that something is either money or property. This is one danger of BTC advocates using the language of property rights to describe bitcoins. I would argue that bitcoins are not legally owned and thus capital gains taxes are not applicable—or at least, this is one argument the target of a government tax evasion suit might want to use." KOL085 | The History, Meaning, and Future of Legal Tender ] This week we talked to Cody Wilson, Director of Defense Distributed, inventor of the world-first working 3D printed gun, "The Liberator", and director of  DarkWallet.  See his Indiegogo campaign to fund Bitcoin Dark Wallet (see video below). Jeff asked him to recommend some of the books that had influenced him. They are: The Society of the Spectacle, by Guy Dubord The History of Sexuality, by Michel Foucault On the Genealogy of Morality, by Nietzsche

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 093. This is the audio for episode 003 of Liberty Talk, a new weekly-ish Google hangout-based podcast with Jeffrey Tucker and me (Google Plus page; Youtube Channel). This week we talked to Justin Hanners, a fired Auburn, Alabama cop (see Citizens Behind Officer Justin Hanners). He dropped by Jeff's office so we snagged a quick interview. He talks about police corruption and ticket quotas.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 092. This is my appearance on Michael Shanklin’s Triple-V: Voluntary Virtues Vodcast with Michael Shanklin (Oct. 30, 2013). We discussed a variety of topics around IP and other issues, such as Can You Trade Something You Don't Own?, Polycentrism, Contract theory, argumentation ethics, and so on. Some background material for these topics can be found at: A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, Journal of Libertarian Studies 17, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 11-37 KOL 044 | “Correcting some Common Libertarian Misconceptions” (PFS 2011) (see slide 7) KOL 049 | “Libertarian Controversies Lecture 5″ (Mises Academy, 2011) (see slide 15) “Argumentation Ethics and Liberty: A Concise Guide,” Mises Daily (May 27, 2011) The Origin of “Libertarianism” Corporate Personhood, Limited Liability, and Double Taxation KOL 026 | FreeDomain Radio with Stefan Molyneux discussing Corporations and Limited Liability KOL 025 | Triple-V: Voluntary Virtues Vodcast, with Michael Shanklin: Intellectual Property, Ron Paul vs RonPaul.Com, Aaron Swartz, Corporatism

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 091. This is the audio for episode 002 of Liberty Talk, a new weekly-ish Google hangout-based podcast with Jeffrey Tucker and me (Google Plus page; Youtube Channel). This week we talked to Sheldon Richman about Obamacare and the origin of his anti-IP views. For more, see Sheldon's articles: Sheldon Richman on Intellectual Property versus Liberty Intellectual “Property” Versus Real Property: What Are Copyrights and What Do They Mean for Liberty?, The Freeman (12 June 2009 Patent Nonsense, The American Conservative (Jan. 1, 2012) Slave Labor and Intellectual Property: On a misplaced analogy, The Freeman Online(June 3, 2011) See also the FEE debate Sheldon mentions in the discussion: Intellectual Property Rights Debate; the Paul Cwik piece mentioned is discussed here.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 090. I spoke at Liberty on the Rocks-Houston last night on the topic of intellectual property. Nice crowd and a good time. I touched on a number of matters, from negative servitudes to positive rights. Zoe Russell and others did a great job running/arranging this. This is my own iPhone recording: not great quality, but mostly listenable. A better video/audio version ought to be forthcoming soon. In the meantime.... have fun.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 089.  This is my appearance earlier today (10/23/2013) on  Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock radio show. We talked intellectual property, including libertarian sci-fi author L. Neil Smith's pro-IP views (see The L. Neil Smith – FreeTalkLive Copyright Dispute; Smith, Unanimous Consent and the Utopian Vision or I Dreamed I Was a Signatory In My Maidenform Bra; Shire Society Forum, Topic: L. Neil Smith has Important Shire Business; L. Neil Smith, A New Covenant).   2013-10-23 Hour 2 Stephan Kinsella from Ernest Hancock on Vimeo.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 088. This is the audio for episode 001 of Liberty Talk, a new weekly-ish Google hangout-based podcast with Jeffrey Tucker and me (Google Plus page; Youtube Channel). This week Jeff and I talked a variety of issues, including Jeff's recent Crypto-Currency Conference in Atlanta, his impromptu 50-person bar meetup in New York before the Students for Liberty regional conference in NY; and Jeff's thoughts on what he calls "the new libertarianism": a movement characterized by optimistic, entrepreneurial, pro-tech and smart young people interested in incorporating liberty into their lives; circumventing the state instead of pleading for it to give them an inch more of freedom, etc. Update: See Jeff's Freeman article The New Libertarianism.  

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 087. This was my appearance on Michael Shanklin's Voluntary Virtues Vodcast. We talked about the Stefan Molyneux vs. Zeitgeist guy "Peter Joseph" etc. Jeff Tucker made an impromptu entrance at the end, discombobulating everyone, as is his wont.   Background: Zeitgeist Versus the Market - Peter Joseph Debates Stefan Molyneux Zeitgeist Examined: Peter Joseph/Stefan Molyneux Debate Analysis Peter Joseph on Stefan Molyneux: "The Art of Nonsense" | Pathology or Con-Artistry?  

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 086. Last weekend I gave a talk “The History, Meaning, and Future of Legal Tender,” at Jeff Tucker's Crypto-Currency Conference: Bitcoin and the Future of Money (Atlanta, Oct. 5, 2013). See KOL085 | The History, Meaning, and Future of Legal Tender; slides below. Video/professional audio to be released later. Pix here and here. This is an interview I did with Kurt Wallace, of RARE radio, whom I met at the CCC. We discussed a variety of issues about bitcoin; the transcript is below. Rare Conversation LISTEN: Why the U.S. will declare war on Bitcoin PBS News Hour clip: The currency known as Bitcoin, which made headlines earlier this week when the FBI seized Silk Road, the popular online black marketplace for drugs and other contraband, payable by Bitcoin had done over a billion dollars worth of business in just the last two years. Kurt Wallace for Rare: Bitcoin has made headlines on PBS News Hour, sparked by an online Bitcoin drug trafficking site. Mainstream companies are popping up all over the place, big time investors are getting involved in this emerging sector and there are crypto-currency conferences monthly and sometimes weekly all over the world. Even Canada has introduced their own government-backed digital currency called mint-chip. What is the future here in the United States regarding Bitcoin and digital currency? Here to help us out is registered patent attorney Stephan Kinsella, founder of Libertarian Papers and former adjunct professor at the South Texas College of Law. Good to have you on Stephan, thank you for joining us today. Stephan Kinsella: Thank you very much glad to be here. Rare: Silk Road is this online black-market that was shut down by the FBI last week. Should people be worried about using Bitcoin in the United States? Kinsella: I don’t think using Bitcoin itself is a big concern. Silk Road itself might be a different issue. You have to consider your own risks in using Silk Road, but Bitcoin itself … no, you can use Bitcoin without being implicated with the Silk Road issues right now. Rare: What’s happened with Silk Road, is that a benefit for Bitcoin or it that bad for Bitcoin? Kinsella: I think it’s good and bad, if you think about. Everything that people accuse Bitcoin of being bad for is true of the U.S. dollar. People are saying that Bitcoin is used for drug transactions. Well the U.S. dollar is used for that too. All the bad things that people accuse Bitcoin of are being used by the U.S. dollar. It’s just an alternative currency that people use. As long as you are careful and as long as you don’t use it for illegal transactions you should be OK. Rare: The U.S. government has the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty and the War on Terror and we were at this crypto-currency conference in Atlanta over the weekend, there were a lot of Libertarians there. A lot of people concerned about their freedoms and their ability to live their lives without government interference. Do we see a possibility of the United States government declaring a war on Bitcoin? Kinsella: Yes, I think there is a concern there, and the concern is that if the U.S. government sees a significant threat to its hegemony over the currency of the U.S. dollar, or the world monetary system. They will try and crack down on it. But we have seen this in the internet as well. I don’t believe the U.S. government, if they had known in the early 1990s what the internet would evolve into, I don’t think they would have allowed it. But it’s a little too late for them to stop it, I hope. I’m puzzling the same is true of Bitcoin and similar currencies. Rare: What part is Bitcoin going to play in the future of legal tender in the United States,

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 085 This is the audio (from my iPhone) of my talk “The History, Meaning, and Future of Legal Tender,” from the Crypto-Currency Conference: Bitcoin and the Future of Money (Atlanta, Oct. 5, 2013). Slides below. Video/professional audio to be released later. Pix here and here. Update: Video is available here. Update: An (only lightly edited) transcript is appended below. Also: in the WSJ article Tax Plan May Hurt Bitcoin, the article notes that legal tender laws are, in fact, jeopardizing BTC. Bitcoins are now classified by the IRS as "property" "instead of" as legal tender money, meaning capital gains taxes are owed on transactions. I mentioned this danger in my talk; a similar problem afflicts the re-adoption of gold or silver as money.  But as I noted in the Q&A to my talk, I am not persuaded that bitcoins are ownable resources—things subject to property rights. The IRS here assumes that something is either money or property. This is one danger of BTC advocates using the language of property rights to describe bitcoins. I would argue that bitcoins are not legally owned and thus capital gains taxes are not applicable—or at least, this is one argument the target of a government tax evasion suit might want to use. Update: Swiss Tax Authorities Confirm that Bitcoin is VAT-free in Switzerland: Bitcoin Association Switzerland reports that, according to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration, no VAT applies to bitcoin in Switzerland. The transfer of bitcoin doesn’t constitute delivery of goods or services, and therefore it’s not subject to VAT. Update:  for more on whether bitcoin is ownable property, see this Facebook thread. And see: Tokyo court says bitcoins are not ownable. See also: FinCEN Rules Commodity-Backed Token Services are Money Transmitters Also: "in the WSJ article Tax Plan May Hurt Bitcoin, the article notes that legal tender laws are, in fact, jeopardizing BTC. Bitcoins are now classified by the IRS as “property” “instead of” as legal tender money, meaning capital gains taxes are owed on transactions. I mentioned this danger in my talk; a similar problem afflicts the re-adoption of gold or silver as money.  But as I noted in the Q&A to my talk, I am not persuaded that bitcoins are ownable resources—things subject to property rights. The IRS here assumes that something is either money or property. This is one danger of BTC advocates using the language of property rights to describe bitcoins. I would argue that bitcoins are not legally owned and thus capital gains taxes are not applicable—or at least, this is one argument the target of a government tax evasion suit might want to use." KOL085 | The History, Meaning, and Future of Legal Tender ] See also: Bitcoin Is Officially a Commodity, According to U.S. Regulator; KOL191 | The Economy with Albert Lu: Can You Own Bitcoin? (1/3) Also: SEC: US Securities Laws 'May Apply' to Token Sales   TRANSCRIPT   Introduction: [From Doug French]:Our next speaker has done nothing less than pathbreaking work in the area of intellectual property. He probably could be considered the "Satoshi of IP" if you will. An American intellectual property lawyer, a libertarian legal theorist, he's created the website The Libertarian Standard, he's created the academic journal Libertarian Papers, he's written a number of books, including my favorite, The Louisiana Civil Law Dictionary.  He is best known for a book called, that really turned the libertarian world on its ear.  This argument continues on.  It rages on.  He continues to take any and all comers online.  But he is…well, this is the perfect time in the cyber world to have a lawyer in the house.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 084. This is from Episode 415 of the Bad Quaker podcast, with Ben Stone. We talked about a variety of matters, including the legitimacy of the state, intellectual property, and related matters.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 083. This was my appearance on Daniel Rothschild's youtube channel on Sept. 27, 2013; we discussed a variety of topics, including "Intellectual Property, Government, National Defense, and Other Scams".

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 082. This is from the Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011 FreeTalkLive in which I was a guest, discussing intellectual property with Sunday hosts Mark Edge and Stephanie. We talked for about an hour and a half, from 7pm-830pm EDT and had a good, wide-ranging discussion. A few callers called in near the end. This was the FTL debut on XM satellite radio’s “Extreme Talk”, XM 165. This episode is also available on the show's podcast feed here.