Intellectual Property

Lessig makes a very good point in pointing out that intellectual property is "nonrivalrous". Just because I'm singing a song you technically own does not stop you from being able to sing the song in any way. Some may argue that for this very reason, intellectual property should be open for all. However, I believe the fact that intellectual property is "nonrivalrous" is what makes is so difficult to deal with. As a result, it requires a much larger investment of effort. Since I feel nothing when you impinge on my intellectual property, in order to monitor it, I have to invest much more time and effort to detect intellectual trespassers.
Before reading Lessig’s work I never really thought about why intellectual property is protected by the government. Lessig so kindly explains that the government protects intellectual property to encourage more people to innovate. If people did not have the comfort of knowing that their ideas would be protected, they would not invest the time and effort in creating them. With real property, that dilemma does not exist. If I buy a house for example, I see it and I feel and I know that real estate has inherent value. With intellectual property, on the other hand, the government had to help create its value by giving exclusive rights for a certain amount of time to inventors. That was a temporary fix to the “nonrivalrous” dilemma. Then came the Internet. Now, pretty much anyone anywhere can send anything to anyone anywhere with very little effort. As a result, monitoring has become infinitely more difficult and people with ideas feel less and less in control of their intellectual property.