> Because the fruits of my (intellectual) labor are the (intellectual) property of the book itself--the unique arrangement of words and images and so forth. Since I created that arrangement, since that arrangement is the fruit of my labor, by natural law I have property rights to it.

And since it's quite literally impossible for you to be deprived of that particular arrangement of words, images, etc., it's physically impossible for your right to be violated.

But you're not claiming just that limited property right; you're saying that you ought to be entitled to restrict others from independently creating their own replica of that arrangement of words, images, etc. which goes far beyond the scope of property rights.

> Property rights extend beyond private enjoyment. Asked and answered.

Into what other areas, then? I'm construing 'private enjoyment' here as the ability to direct the disposition of the associated property without restraint; but how does this extend to directing the disposition of other people's replicas of your property? How does it apply to inherently intangible and non-rival goods?

> I never said there was a "positive right to a market return"; that was the entire point of the house example.

The house example was a non-sequitur. In your example, the state seized your house from you and rented it back to you; they took something that was physically owned by you, and imposed their own constraints on its use and disposition. This is a clear violation of your rights. Again, I'm not seeing how it at all compares to other people independently creating a replica of something you own without imposing any constraints on you.

The only effect third-party copying can have on you is the alteration of external market conditions, potentially reducing the financial return you can obtain from selling copies of the work yourself; but again, you never had any right to guaranteed financial returns, so no right of yours is actually being violated here.

> All property rights require some legal mechanism to be enforceable.

Absolutely false. Physical property is inherently tangible and rival, meaning that only a finite number of individuals can control its disposition at any one time; it's therefore impossible for physical property to exist without someone establishing decisive control over it (or it being abandoned, in which case you might say it's not 'property' at all).

Now, people may seek to embody the process by which people establish decisive control over physical property in some sort of deliberative or judicial context, in order to reduce the possibility of disruption of their social groups arising from property disputes, but it would be inaccurate to suggest that without such a system, the concept of property would simply not exist.

> Without deeds and titles I couldn't even own my house.

No. Deeds and titles are post-hoc formalizations that recognize property rights; they aren't the primordial source of property rights.

Simply put, natural law doesn't presuppose that only physical objects can be property. That's a separate premise you're trying to sneak in. The act of writing a book creates an information/intellectual good, not just a physical artifact.

Look, I'm tired of repeating myself, and you're either not understanding my argument or too tendentious to even try. I don't even believe in natural law, and I think it's possible to use natural law to argue either side of the copyright dispute. If you want to obsessively argue that the natural law justification for copyright is wrong from a natural law standpoint, I honestly don't give a damn. My point is that such an argument can be made, and the fact that we are repeating ourselves to each other only proves my point.

If you want to discuss this further, my email address is in my profile.