Property is a human construct that we have developed as as a society to decide who, according to the law, has the ultimate decision to decide who can control something, use something, destroy something, give away something, etc. This is enforced by a third party (government). http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/ownership.html Morally, shouldn't there ideally be a chain of consensual transactions and exchanges from producer to current owner? If there is no such chain, that would mean that somewhere along the line there was theft in some way, shape or form (There are of course more complicated exceptions such as when people die and haven't made a will to confer ownership of their belongings, so that we cannot know who the now dead owner wanted to give ownership to, or something that has been stolen in the past where you have no way of tracing the individual it was stolen from, like if you find a non imprinted piece of gold while you are diving) Economically, shouldn't there ideally be a chain of consensual transactions and exchanges from producer to current owner to ensure that those who wish to innovate and produce are willing to produce more by having the financial incentive for it? Also by us wanting his products in exchange for money we also induce more willingness to produce in the producer, thus increasing the abundance and availability of the products and services in our society? Aren't the moral and economic basis for the justification of property the same? And if something is morally and economically justifiable to be property, then what gives anyone the right to violate that by theft, robbery, taxation, damaging of the property, etc.? MY QUESTION TO YOU IS: How do we design our property laws in order to ensure that our property laws are both morally and economically justifiable? What should be considered property and what shouldn't be deemed property by the law and why? (I bolded above to hopefully reduce question begging by a certain group of posters http://geolib.com/essays/sullivan.dan/royallib.html)
There are three categories that could be considered property: NATURAL: Land, oil (in the ground in its natural place), the ocean, the electromagnetic spectrum, space in general,... PRODUCTS: Cars, airplanes, food, televisions, cars, roads, discs,... IP: Patents, Copyrights,...(Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Music, Videos, Software, Innovations, Technology, etc...)
