First, what even do we mean by property? Well, there are material things that are sometimes scarce or rivalrous. If I eat a sandwich, you can’t also eat it; if I sleep in a bed, you can’t also sleep in it at the same time; if an acre of land is rented out for agricultural use, only one of us can collect the rent check.
Why do you describe property as being material things here?
Possible Nitpick:
If I understand you correctly, you use ‘excludability’ as a defining feature of property. As far as I understand, property comes with varying degrees of excludability and are sometimes not excludable at all (e.g. public property, common property). Maybe it would be useful to think about property more generally as things that come with certain rights (the right to use and transfer it, the right to earn income/interest off of it).
As the end of the paragraph suggests, property can also be immaterial, but I agree that sentence should be tightened up a bit.
As far as I understand, property comes with varying degrees of excludability and are sometimes not excludable at all (e.g. public property, common property).
A lens on public property is that it’s where the public uses its right to exclude others from taking ownership of the thing. As Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain, I can’t say “Sherlock Holmes is my IP!”, whereas I could say that about characters I invent that aren’t in the public domain. And the public domain doesn’t just extend to things that are currently known; there are whole swaths of intellectual effort where society has decided discoveries cannot be patented.
Why do you describe property as being material things here?
Possible Nitpick:
If I understand you correctly, you use ‘excludability’ as a defining feature of property. As far as I understand, property comes with varying degrees of excludability and are sometimes not excludable at all (e.g. public property, common property). Maybe it would be useful to think about property more generally as things that come with certain rights (the right to use and transfer it, the right to earn income/interest off of it).
As the end of the paragraph suggests, property can also be immaterial, but I agree that sentence should be tightened up a bit.
A lens on public property is that it’s where the public uses its right to exclude others from taking ownership of the thing. As Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain, I can’t say “Sherlock Holmes is my IP!”, whereas I could say that about characters I invent that aren’t in the public domain. And the public domain doesn’t just extend to things that are currently known; there are whole swaths of intellectual effort where society has decided discoveries cannot be patented.