THE LAW OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY- THE LAW OF NATURE
CHAPTER 1 THE LAW OF NATURE IN REGARD TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
SECTION VII. What is the Foundation of the Right of Property? The right of property has its
foundation, first, in the natural right of each man to provide for his own subsistence; and, secondly, in his right to provide for his general happiness and well being, in addition to a mere subsistence.
The right to live, includes the right to accumulate the means of hiving; and the right to obtain happiness in general, includes the might to accumulate such commodities as minister
to one's happiness. These rights, then, to live, and to obtain happiness, are the foundations of the right of property. Such being the case, it is evident that no other human right has a deeper foundation in the nature and
necessities of man, than the might of property. If, when one man has dipped a cup of water from the [*29] stream, to slake his own thirst, or gathered food, to satisfy his own hunger, or made a garment, to protect his own body,
other men can right fully tell him that these commodities are not his, but theirs, and can right fully take them from him, without his consent, his right to provide for the preservation of his own life, and for
the enjoyment of happiness, are extinct. The right of property in intellectual wealth, has manifestly the same foundation, as the right of property in material wealth. Without intellectual wealth-
that is, without ideas - material wealth could neither be accumulated, nor fitted to contribute, nor made to contribute, to the sustenance or happiness of man. Intellectual wealth, therefore, is indispensable to the acquisition and
use of other wealth. It is also, of itself, a direct source of happiness, in a great variety of ways. Furthermore, it is not only a timing of value, for the owner's uses, but, as has before been said, hike material wealth, it is a
merchantable commodity; has a value in the market; and will purchase, for its proprietor, other wealth in exchange. On every ground, therefore, the right of property in ideas, has as deep a foundation in the nature and necessities
of man, as has the right of property in material things.
SECTION VIII. How is the Right of Property Transferred? From the very nature of the right of property, that right can be transferred, from
the proprietor, only by his own consent. What is the right of property? It is, as has before been explained, a right of control, of dominion. If, then, a man's property be taken from him without his consent, his right of control,
or dominion over it, is necessarily infringed; in other words, his right of property is necessarily violated. Even to use
another's property, without his consent, is to violate his right of property; because it is for the time being, [*30] assuming a dominion over wealth, the rightful dominion over which belongs solely to the owner.
These are the principles of the law of nature, relative to all property. They are as applicable to intellectual, as to material, property. The consent, or will, of the owner alone, can
transfer the right of property in either, or give to another the right to use either. If it be asked, how is the consent of a man to part with his material property to be proved? The answer
is, that it must be proved, like all other facts in courts of justice, by evidence that is naturally applicable to prove such a fact, and that is sufficient to satisfy the mind of the tribunal that tries that question.
SECTION IX.
Conclusions from the Preceding Principles. The conclusions, that follow from the principles now established, obviously are, that a man has a natural and absolute right- and if a natural and
absolute, then necessarily a perpetual, right- of property, in the ideas, of which he is the discoverer or creator; that his right of property, in ideas, is intrinsically the same as, and stands on identically the
same grounds with his right of property in material things; that no distinction, of principle, exists between the two cases. [*31]