Several readers have asked me my opinion of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. I fear that in this case, the devil is in the details, so I find it hard to reach a strong view. But I have been disturbed by the relatively knee-jerk reaction of the anti-SOPA crowd. This is a hard issue, and when someone makes it sound easy, I feel like they haven't thought it through very thoroughly.
The anti-SOPA crowd argues that this is a matter of basic liberty. But it's not. In a free society, you don't have the freedom to steal your neighbor's property. And that should include intellectual property. Continue to read at Greg Mankiw's Blog..