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David K. Levine
Personal blog · dklevine.comeconomicsphilosophy
David K. Levine writes Levine's Economic and Game Theory Pages, a personal blog at dklevine.com about economics and philosophy. Since 2008, 43 different Hacker News readers have linked it 82 times, most often “Against Intellectual Monopoly (2008)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-01-14, and you can follow it by feed.
82mentions?
43HN people?
2008–2026first – last linked?
uses the tools of modern economics and game theory to explore how the interaction of intelligent goal-seeking individuals determines social outcomes
Most-linked posts?
- Against Intellectual Monopoly (2008)16 people · 26 mentions · first linked 2009-09-04
- Economic and Game Theory: Against Intellectual Monopoly14 people · 19 mentions · first linked 2010-06-23
- /general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-01-17
- Against Intellectual Monopoly3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-05-17
- /general/intellectual/againstnew.htm3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-05-25
- /papers/imbookfinalall.pdf2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-10-03
What Hacker News says?
Lobbyists for SOPA and PIPA have had to retreat in wounded ignorance. Their apologists complain that an attack on Hollywood is an attack on the elderly-- elderly intellectual monopolists (cf. Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/againstnew.htm ). And don't forget the outrageous scattershot lawsuits by the MPAA and RIAA. These organizations…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/againstnew.htm
on “Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.”Submitted Against Intellectual Monopoly as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThe balance of cost and benefits is not as clear as you may think. https://questioncopyright.org/ http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm
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on “Is Alexandra Elbakyan in real trouble this time?”Submitted Radical Markets by Posner and Weyl, a Review Essay by David K. Levine [pdf] as a story · 3 points
HN discussionStrange. That directly contradicts Against Intellectual Monopoly [1], which claims patents did more harm than good in this very case . One reason is independent discovery: most innovations tend to be discovered independently and nearly simultaneously. Like, when "science is ready", innovations just pop out of several people's mind relatively quickly. (See also Eben Moglen's folk theory of the internet and innovation…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/against.htm
on “The Patent Pledge”Submitted Against Intellectual Monopoly (2008) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere are free-rider problems everywhere. From a "rights" perspective, the fact that you can see a free-rider problem and have an idea for some kind of law that you think would improve incentives doesn't justify using legal force to impose these changes on everyone else. But I'm not sure how many people there are these days for whom a "rights" argument carries weight. For a more empirical approach, I think it's wort…
Comment linking /papers/imbookfinal08.pdf
on “EFF and heavyweight legal team will defend Internet Archive against publishers”Submitted Economic and Game Theory: Against Intellectual Monopoly as a story · 1 points
HN discussionR&D costs actually make up a pretty small portion of the pie. It's unclear what if anything patents are doing to recoup those since they're all just copying each other with designer drugs that are just slightly different enough to not violate someone else's patent. The pharma industry is probably a better example than the software industry for why patents suck. http://www.dklevine.com/papers/imbookfinal09.pdf
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on “Yahoo Crosses The Line”Submitted Against Intellectual Monopoly as a story · 1 points
HN discussionIntellectual monopolies disincentivize development and incentivize rent seeking. Here, rent seeking is legal action and lobbying intended to protect and extend monopolies, instead of advancing science. Other than economic logic, we have natural experiments to back this up: i.e. the steam engine patent granted to Watt and Boulton in 1772 and its chilling effect on engine duty improvement (and the explosion of progres…
Comment linking /papers/anew09.pdf
on “Gene therapy restores hearing to children with inherited deafness”Submitted Against Intellectual Monopoly as a story · 1 points
HN discussionExtremely short argument: I have read Against Intellectual Monopoly , and found the arguments compelling (I trust there were no major factual inaccuracy). http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm
Comment linking /general/intellectual/against.htm
on “Stop Patent Trolls: Support the Innovation Act of 2015”Anyone can create a billion dollar company or win a Nobel prize while we're at it. All technically true but largely meaningless for lack of nuance and perspective. If you're an independent inventor you'll need to hire a patent attorney for your patent to have a meaningful chance, which will run several grand. The patent office is overwhelmed and as a result tends to reject the first draft of an application so that o…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm
on “Giant, free index to world's research papers released online”Chapter 8 [1] of Against Intellectual Monopoly, "Does Intellectual Monopoly Increase Innovation?" looks into this, including comparing countries with stronger patent laws vs weaker laws. The results seem pretty decidedly mixed. [1] http://www.dklevine.com/papers/ip.ch.8.m1004.pdf
Comment linking /papers/ip.ch.8.m1004.pdf
on “H.266/Versatile Video Coding (VVC)”> We at Intellectual Ventures fundamentally disagree with [the notion that patents have a negative impact on innovation], which flies in the face of centuries of evidence. I know of a rather serious source that says patents are a net evil, baked up by… centuries of evidence: http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm About the values of ideas, it is quite evident that most patents' ideas are extremely…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/against.htm
on “When Patents Attack”> IP laws are important They're important in the fact that they do immense damage to our economy, with perverse incentives and rent seeking everywhere. There is little no evidence that IP improves innovation or even benefits creators as whole. There are instances like this all the time showing what a terrible system it is. Copyright and patents shouldn't exist at all, and especially shouldn't in their current capaci…
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on “Copyright Troll May Have Set an Expensive Precedent for Copyright Trolls”It’s very good to see someone as influential as Sam talking about this. The idea that automation can be used (intentionally!) to lower the cost of living to zero has been a key component of my personal writing and work for some years now. [1] There is a lot that I agree with here and some things I disagree with. For example capitalism can encourage value creation but it can also encourage rent seeking. Since I have…
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on “Moore's Law for Everything”https://questioncopyright.org/ http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm
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on “Copyright doesn't need 95 years to get the job done”Shiva argues that the methods pushed by industry are what weaken food security. Patent protected seeds that cannot legally be collected put big industry between farmers and their food production. She argues for a more resilient food system through seed collection and sharing, biodynamic farming practices that promote healthy disease resistant soil, and an end to fossil fuel inputs in farming. She is advocating for a…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm
on “World Now Likely to Hit Watershed 1.5 °C Rise in Next 5 Years”There are large collections of drawbacks; books have been written about it. The two I can remember the name of are “Against Intellectual Monopoly” ( http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/againstfinal.ht... ) and “The Case for Copyright Reform” ( http://www.copyrightreform.eu/ ). I would rather not argue specifics, but instead get you and people in general to understand what the argument is, and to get people…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm
on “Bill Gates: My Plan to Improve Our World, and How You Can Help”From my understanding, it's wildly considered that patents slowed steam engine innovation significantly. http://www.dklevine.com/papers/ip.ch.1.m1004.pdf
Comment linking /papers/ip.ch.1.m1004.pdf
on “Do patents kill innovation? The US patent office is asking”> IExplorer 5 was the best browser available That's web 1.0 > but no, it's not monopolies that create the opportunity for disruption, but the exact opposite of a monopoly, which is competition, often made possible by advances in technology. monopolies innovate less, thus making them prone for disruption. "We develop a new theory of why a monopolistic industry innovates less than a competitive industry" http://www.dk…
Comment linking /papers/monopoly_innovation.pdf
on “Google’s Chrome Becomes Web ‘Gatekeeper’ and Rivals Complain”I’ve just written a nearby comment that might answer your question. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28664769 See also a direct link to a chapter in an economics book about the subject: http://dklevine.com/papers/anew09.pdf
Comment linking /papers/anew09.pdf
on “AI cannot be the inventor of a patent, appeals court rules”I am not disputing that patents provide the recognized inventor a period of monopoly rights which allow that person higher profits for the patent period. What I argue is that this system as implemented does not actually increase the rate of innovation as we are typically told. I argue that in fact this system dramatically slows the rate of innovation. This occurs because every patent benefits one individual while a…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/againstnew.htm
on “AI cannot be the inventor of a patent, appeals court rules”I think "overlearning" is not a good term (edit: it is quite accurate, though), because it tend to suggest the worst solution of all: that we refrain from learning. I prefer "lost purposes"[1]. The primary purpose of a game is generally to Have Fun. This purpose is lost if you have "solved" the game. The stated purpose of patents is to foster innovation. However it doesn't work[2]. The purpose of schools is learning…
Comment linking /general/intellectual/against.htm
on “The "overlearning the game" problem”I firmly disagree with pretty much everything you have said. There is no evidence that intellectual property in any way increases production of works, and indeed there is plenty of evidence that inhibits it. See http://dklevine.com/general/intellectual/against.htm for a comprehensive look at the subject. While I dont agree with their conclusions, the data they show is solid.
Comment linking /general/intellectual/against.htm
on “Get Your Book, Make It Free”Well, that’s very much debatable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_copyright http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/againstfinal.ht...
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on “Archive.org Seeks Summary Judgment in Lawsuit Filed by Publishing Companies”Patents have stalled technology in many areas since a long time. The book "Against Intellectual Monopoly" [1] by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine analyze the economical impact of patterns on society. They give some surprising examples, like how the Wright brothers invested heavily in patents and legal actions to stiffle competition instead of continuing development of airplanes. [1] http://dklevine.com/general/in…
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on “E Ink has developed a 2nd generation Advanced Color E-Paper”Drugs are typically presented as the crown jewel for patents, but an examination of the modern drug industry destroys that notion for me. Some decent arguments can be found here: http://www.dklevine.com/papers/imbookfinal09.pdf
Comment linking /papers/imbookfinal09.pdf
on “Judge Posner: U.S. patent system out of sync”
