Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels started a movement, communism, that has taken tons of twists and turns since. Socialism is often called communism, by those who are confused. Socialism is when the State forcibly controls all means of production. While the OGs of communism claimed the historical necessity of this stage, this was not their ideal. Their ideal, communism, occurs when people own the means of production and the State is abolished or withers away. Whatever moniker you prefer for the ideology of freedom (libertarian anarchy, liberalism, kritarchy, or voluntaryism), communist ends are best met by the defense of individual freedom.
The number one plank of the Communist Manifesto regards the abolition of property. The priority given shows its level of import to Marx and Engels. Liberalism is summed up by Mises as the protection of property. Counterintuitive as it may seem I believe that the abolition of property will come about by protecting property.
Abolition in this sense, is not to be taken as total coercive seizure of individuals' property by the State (coterie of collusion). The protection of property rights will lead to the withering away of property. Statists refer to emulated and shared ideas, on the digital plane, as "intellectual property". Stephan Kinsella crumbles this philosophy into a paper wad, shreds it, and tosses its remains into a viking funeral pyre here.
Communist utopia is supposed to begin with a world in which no property exists. In the mid 1800's this did not exist. The blessings of property and liberalism, private control of the means of production, include the actualization of the mythical "Land of Cockaigne". I can have a song, and give it to my friends without being deprived of it myself. The same goes for; movies, books, software, photographs et cetera... The internet is the facilitator of this peaceful trade. The beauty of human life is the result of physical intercourse. The wonder that is the availability of ideas, is the result of intellectual intercourse.
The digital plane could not have come about with Socialism. The complete social and economic invasion upon voluntary trade, by the State, leaves man in an atavistic state of war. Socialism is governed by involuntary trade. Thus, socialism necessarily batters the specialization that comes about with the division of labor. When you point guns at peoples' heads and tell them how to produce, the great leap to starvation is the result.
If there are communists who genuinely care about the ideal of ridding the world of the need of property, then they will promulgate total market anarchy. Market anarchists do not advocate using the State to oppress sharing ideas on the internet. The physical plane has scarcity of goods and services. The digital plane has room for the indefinite sharing of goods and services. In a world of scarcity, property is needed for individuals to be able to sustain themselves without the initiation of violence. In a world of fully freed markets, humans are able to add previously tangible and scarce goods to the digital plane. Every good and every service added to the digital plane, is an increase of the catalogue of nonproprietary goods and services. It is foreseeable, that all goods and services enter the digital plane.
If all goods and services were to enter the digital plane, there would be no need for property. No, not strong enough. There would be no natural right to property if scarcity no longer existed. The ideal of a propertyless world would be achieved.
If you are a commie, seek the protection of property rights. If you are commie, understand that "IP" is illusory. If you are a commie, seek liberalism.
Laissez Faire, Holus Bolus. Let it be, all at once.
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