Part 1, Chapter 1, Section 5
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18551855

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Author : Lysander Spooner

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SECTION V.

What Things are Subjects of Property?

Every conceivable thing, whether intellectual, moral, or material, of which
the mind can take cognizance, and which can be possessed, held, used,
controlled, and enjoyed, by one person, and not, at the same instant of
time, by another person, is rightfully a subject of property.
All the wealth, that has before been described—that is, all the things,
intellectual, moral, emotional, or material, that can contribute to, or
constitute, the happiness or well-being of man; and that can be possessed
by one man, and not at the same time by another, is rightfully a subject of
property—that is, of individual ownership, control, dominion, use, and
enjoyment.

The air, that a man inhales, is his, while it is inhaled. When he has
exhaled it, it is no longer his. The air that he may enclose in a bottle,
or in his dwelling, is his, while it is so enclosed. When he has discharged
it, it is no longer his. The sun-light, that falls upon a man, or upon his
land, or that comes into his dwelling, is his; and no other man has a right
to forbid his enjoyment of it, or compel him to pay for it.
A man's body is his own. It is the property of his mind. (It is the mind
that owns every thing, that is property. Bodies own nothing; but are
themselves subjects of property—that is, of dominion. Each body is the
property—that is, is under the dominion—of the mind that inhabits it.)
And no man has the right, as being the proprietor, to take another man's
body out of the control of his mind. In other words, no man can own another
man's body.
All a man's enjoyments, all his feelings, all his happiness, are his
property. They are his, and not another man's. They belong to him, and not
to others. And no other man has the right to forbid him to enjoy them, or
to compel him to pay for them. Other men may have enjoyments, feelings,
happiness, similar, in their nature, to his. But they cannot own his
feelings, his enjoyments, or his happiness. They cannot, therefore,
rightfully require him to pay them for them, as if they were theirs, and
not his own.

A man's ideas are his property. They are his for enjoyment, and his for
use. Other men do not own his ideas. He has a right, as against all other
men, to absolute dominion over his ideas. He has a right to act his own
judgment, and his own pleasure, as to giving them, or selling them to other
men. Other men cannot claim them of him, as if they were their property,
and not his; any more than they can claim any other things whatever, that
are his. If they desire them, and he does not choose to give them to them
gratuitously, they must buy them of him, as they would buy any other
articles of property whatever. They must pay him his price for them, or not
have them. They have no more right to force him to give his ideas to them,
than they have to force him to give them his purse.
Mankind universally act upon this principle. No sane man, who acknowledged
the right of individual property in any thing, ever claimed that, as a
natural or general principle, he was the rightful owner of the thoughts
produced, and exclusively possessed, by other men's minds; or demanded them
on the ground of their being his property; or denied that they were the
property of their possessors.

If the ideas, which a man has produced, were not rightfully his own, but
belonged equally to other men, they would have the right imperatively to
require him to give his ideas to them, without compensation; and it would
be just and right for them to punish him as a criminal, if he refused.
Among civilized men, ideas are common articles of traffic. The more highly
cultivated a people become, the more are thoughts bought and sold. Writers,
orators, teachers, of all kinds, are continually selling their thoughts for
money. They sell their thoughts, as other men sell their material
productions, for what they will bring in the market. The price is
regulated, not solely by the intrinsic value of the ideas themselves, but
also, like the prices of all other commodities, by the supply and demand.
On these principles, the author sells his ideas in his volumes; the poet
sells his in his verses; the editor sells his in his daily or weekly
sheets; the statesman sells his in his messages, his diplomatic papers, his
speeches, reports, and votes; the jurist sells his in his judgments, and
judicial opinions; the lawyer sells his in his counsel, and his arguments;
the physician sells his in his advice, skill, and prescriptions; the
preacher sells his in his prayers and sermons; the teacher sells his in his
instructions; the lecturer sells his in his lectures; the architect sells
his in his plans; the artist sells his in the figure he has engraven on
stone, and in the picture he has painted on canvas. In practical life,
these ideas are all as much articles of merchandise, as are houses, and
lands, and bread, and meat, and clothing, and fuel. Men earn their livings,
and support their families, by producing and selling ideas. And no man, who
has any rational ideas of his own, doubts that in so doing they earn their
livelihood in as legitimate a manner as any other members of society earn
theirs. He who produces food for men's minds, guides for their hands in
labor, and rules for their conduct in life, is as meritorious a producer,
as he who produces food or shelter for their bodies.
Again. We habitually talk of the ideas of particular authors, editors,
poets, statesmen, judges, lawyers, physicians, preachers, teachers,
artists, &c., as being worth less than the price that is asked or paid for
them, in particular instances; and of other men's ideas, as being worth
more than the price that is paid for them, in particular instances; just as
we talk of other and material commodities, as being worth less or more than
the prices at which they are sold. We thus recognize ideas as being
legitimate articles of traffic, and as having a regular market value, like
other commodities.
Because all men give more or less of their thoughts gratuitously to their
fellow men, in conversation, or otherwise, it does not follow at all that
their thoughts are not their property, which they have a natural right to
set their own price upon, and to withhold from other men, unless the price
be paid. Their thoughts are thus given gratuitously, or in exchange for
other men's thoughts, (as in conversation,) either for the reason that they
would bring nothing more in the market, or would bring too little to
compensate for the time and labor of putting them in a marketable form, and
selling them. Their market value is too small to make it profitable to sell
them. Such thoughts men give away gratuitously, or in exchange for such
thoughts as other men voluntarily give in return—just as men give to each
other material commodities of small value, as nuts, and apples, a piece of
bread, a cup of water, a meal of victuals, from motives of complaisance and
friendship, or in expectation of receiving similar favors in return; and
not because these articles are not as much property, as are the most
valuable commodities that men ever buy or sell. But for nearly all
information that is specially valuable, or valuable enough to command a
price worth demanding—though it be given in one's private car, as legal
or medical advice, for example—a pecuniary compensation is demanded, with
nearly the same uniformity as for a material commodity. And no one doubts
that such information is a legitimate and lawful consideration for the
equivalent paid. Courts of justice uniformly recognize them as such, as in
the case of legal, medical, and various other kinds of information. One man
can sue for and recover pay for ideas, which, as lawyer, physician,
teacher, or editor, he has sold to another man, just as he can for land,
food, clothing, or fuel.


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     Part 1, Chapter 1, Section 5 -- Publication : November 30, 1854

     Part 1, Chapter 1, Section 5 -- Added : January 09, 2020

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