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Illegally Download Music, Lose Your House?

Most "Free Liberals" support property rights. That said, reasonable, pro-liberty people can disagree over the concept and enforcement of intellectual property. Most fair-minded people also understand the concept of proportionality in punishment.

That brings us to Los Angeles where the County Commission recently adopted an ordinance that essentially allows the authorities to seize homes if acts of piracy (illegally downloading music and movies) are found to be committed on the premises.

According to the story from Wired, the County board declared that piracy "substantially interferes with the interest of the public in the quality of life and community peace, lawful commerce in the county, property values, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare of the county's citizens, its businesses and its visitors."

Not surprisingly, the regulation was crafted at the urging of the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America.

Property owners who knowingly permit such activity can also be dinged $1,000 for each counterfeited work produced on the property.

The fact is that the Founding Fathers included provisions for patents in the Constitution. They did this because the public at large benefits from new products and technologies. Without patent protection, the incentive for people to innovate is reduced. Is this true for intellectual property? The debate over that issue rages on, but the answers are much less cut-and-dried.

It would seem that losing one's house for pirating a movie is more than a little unfair.

Posted by Paul Gessing on May 13, 2008 08:51 PM |

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