Others have caught Rand Paul caught numerous times plagiarizing. First in speeches, then in books, and now in an op-ed. Admittedly, the view on intellectual property ranges among libertarians. Ayn Rand, who also collected social security, believed in limited timeframes for copyrights. Roderick T. Long believes intellectual property concepts infringes on freedom of speech, free being the optimal word here. There are plenty of libertarians expressing their views. While I cannot expect to speak for libertarians on this matter, it seems the trend is to suggest intellectual property is a statist concept.
This may explain why Rand Paul freely pulls from the works of others. He simply doesn’t believe in intellectual property.
Related articles
- Rand Paul and the Xerox Machine (juanitajean.com)
- If You Accuse Rand Paul of Plagiarism, He’d Like to Kill You (littlegreenfootballs.com)
- Sen. Rand Paul Lifted Entire Pages of Text for His 2013 Book (kstreet607.com)
- Sen. Rand Paul, plagiarist, wants to challenge accusers to a duel … but he won’t (dailykos.com)
At the other extreme, heavily influenced by corporate America, California schools are treating intellectual property as a golden god rather than a sacred cow. Fair use is being so narrowly defined as to be virtually nonexistent. Carried to its logical conclusion, this opposing end of the copyright argument could conceivably destroy creativity since very few ideas are truly original.
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Meanwhile, on the positive side of things, the Rand Paul plagiarism flap has gone a long way in revealing what brighter sorts have known for generations. Doctors aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are!
How embarrassing! Rand Paul agrees with me! I won’t exactly accuse him of plagiarizing my 2007 post about this, but perhaps he and his fellow libertarians have taken some of my ideas, dismissing the concept of “intellectual property”. But should I now change my view to keep my distance from Tea Party extremists?
so they took your ideas without crediting you? Oh, Peter…