Author's right as property: Old and new theories

There are a certain number of rights which, though to some extent different in detail, all have this essential quality, in common, that they do not ap ply to external, material objects, but to internal, spiritual, or rather in tellectual values or products. To my mind no term can be found to character ize the essence of these rights better and more centrally than "intellectua l property." As I shall endeavour to show, it has hitherto been an error to keep these rights apart from the sphere of property law and regard them as an entirely special kind of rights. This error has to some extent been due to the fact that the research of the true nature and extent of the right o f property has been neglected. On due examination these rights will be foun d to have in reality the same economic and legal effects as the rights of p roperty in the external material objects; essentially, the two kinds of pro perty rights involve the same fundamental problems.(1)