Editing Intellectual property (section)

===Morality===
According to Article&nbsp;27 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], "everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author".<ref>{{cite web|publisher=United Nations|title=The Universal Declaration of Human Rights|url=https://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml |access-date=25 October 2011}}</ref> Although the relationship between intellectual property and [[human rights]] is complex,<ref>{{cite web|author=WIPO – The World Intellectual Property Organization|title=Human Rights and Intellectual Property: An Overview|url=http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/hr/ |access-date=25 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111022125749/http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/hr/ |archive-date=22 October 2011}}</ref> there are moral arguments for intellectual property. The arguments that justify intellectual property fall into three major categories. Personality theorists believe intellectual property is an extension of an individual. Utilitarians believe that intellectual property stimulates social progress and pushes people to further innovation. Lockeans argue that intellectual property is justified based on deservedness and hard work.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intellectual-property/|title=Intellectual Property|last=Moore|first=Adam|year=2014|website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}}</ref> Various moral justifications for private property can be used to argue in favor of the morality of intellectual property, such as:

# ''Natural Rights/Justice Argument'': this argument is based on Locke's idea that a person has a natural right over the labour and products which are produced by their body. Appropriating these products is viewed as unjust. Although Locke had never explicitly stated that natural right applied to products of the mind,<ref>Ronald V. Bettig. "Critical Perspectives on the History and Philosophy of Copyright" in Copyrighting Culture: The Political Economy of Intellectual Property, by Ronald V. Bettig. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), 19–20</ref> it is possible to apply his argument to intellectual property rights, in which it would be unjust for people to misuse another's ideas.<ref>Richard T. De George, "14. Intellectual Property Rights", in The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, by George G. Brenkert and Tom L. Beauchamp, vol. 1, 1st ed. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, n.d.), 415–416.</ref> Locke's argument for intellectual property is based upon the idea that laborers have the right to control that which they create. They argue that we own our bodies which are the laborers, this right of ownership extends to what we create. Thus, intellectual property ensures this right when it comes to production.
# ''Utilitarian-Pragmatic Argument'': according to this rationale, a society that protects private property is more effective and prosperous than societies that do not. Innovation and invention in 19th-century America has been attributed to the development of the [[patent]] system.<ref>Richard T. De George, "14. Intellectual Property Rights", in The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, by George G. Brenkert and Tom L. Beauchamp, vol. 1, 1st ed. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, n.d.), 416.</ref> By providing innovators with "durable and tangible return on their investment of time, labor, and other resources", intellectual property rights seek to maximize social utility.<ref name="Spinello 2007">{{cite journal|last=Spinello|first=Richard A.|title=Intellectual property rights|journal=Library Hi Tech|date=January 2007|volume=25|issue=1|pages=12–22|doi=10.1108/07378830710735821|s2cid=5159054 }}<!--|access-date=November 3, 2011--></ref> The presumption is that they promote public welfare by encouraging the "creation, production, and distribution of intellectual works".<ref name="Spinello 2007" /> Utilitarians argue that without intellectual property there would be a lack of incentive to produce new ideas. Systems of protection such as Intellectual property optimize social utility.
# ''"Personality" Argument'': this argument is based on a quote from [[Hegel]]: "Every man has the right to turn his will upon a thing or make the thing an object of his will, that is to say, to set aside the mere thing and recreate it as his own".<ref>Richard T. De George, "14. Intellectual Property Rights", in The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, by George G. Brenkert and Tom L. Beauchamp, vol. 1, 1st ed. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, n.d.), 417.</ref> European intellectual property law is shaped by this notion that ideas are an "extension of oneself and of one's personality".<ref>Richard T. De George, "14. Intellectual Property Rights", in The Oxford Handbook of Business Ethics, by George G. Brenkert and Tom L. Beauchamp, vol. 1, 1st ed. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, n.d.), 418.</ref> Personality theorists argue that by being a creator of something one is inherently at risk and vulnerable for having their ideas and designs stolen and/or altered. Intellectual property protects these moral claims that have to do with personality.

[[Lysander Spooner]] (1855) argues 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."<ref>The Law of Intellectual Property, Part 1 Chapter 1 Section 9 – Lysander Spooner</ref> Writer [[Ayn Rand]] argued in her book ''[[Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal]]'' that the protection of intellectual property is essentially a moral issue. The belief is that the human mind itself is the source of wealth and survival and that all property at its base is intellectual property. To violate intellectual property is therefore no different morally than violating other property rights which compromises the very processes of survival and therefore constitutes an immoral act.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rand|first=Ayn |author-link=Ayn Rand|title=Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal|url=https://archive.org/details/capitalismunknow00rand |url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Signet|year=1967|isbn=9780451147950 |orig-year=1966|edition=paperback 2nd}}</ref>