All ideas that can be written down are numbers. You may not like it, but this is a fact of the universe. I dont want to bore anyone with formal encoding, but a quick and fast solution would be to write the text in a text editor (or just scan the paper) and save it to disk. The digital representation of the file is a pattern of 1 and 0, or a (really big) binary number.
In other words, all books ever written, and all books that ever will be written, already exist as numbers. I do not see how one can create numbers or own numbers.
Once you drop the mythical world view of “creating” ideas, you may realise all the pitfalls of IP.
Another problem is that people keep mixing voluntary IP arrangements (contracts) with violence-enforced monopoly. These are two entirely different things. Equivocation is bad for a debate, please stop.
If you state monopoly for ideas because of the common good, why not state monopoly for food and clothes, they are surely alot more important for the common good? After all, people will not produce food if everyone else can come along and produce food as well, they need special privileges to protect their creation or they will not do it.
If you are not demanding state monopoly but are perfectly fine with voluntary contracts, why the hostility? Noone knows how the free market will work out (problem of central planning…). We can only speculate what contracts people will sign and how those might be enforced.
My take on the issue of hacking:
Hacking a server is trespassing if the server is set up properly. Do we want people who do not set up their servers properly?
Hacking a stolen notebook can only happen if you steal the notebook first.
Hacking a bought DVD (to remove copy protection, for example) can be a violation of contract.
Hacking a DVD you downloaded or got from a friend is perfectly fine. If you argue otherwise, please prove how someone can restrict the mathematical algorithms you apply to your own property on your own land without ever promising anyone via contract not to do it.
EULAs can hardly be contracts (unless its online activation or the like) because you need a meeting of the minds. Hard to do when one party doesnt even know the name of the other party that is supposed to enter into a contract when he finds the DVD on a park bench. The only way to get a third party to accept an EULA is by claiming that the physical medium always remains your property, and you only rent it out. The same way you cannot just take any car you find, because it is probably the property of someone else and he doesnt allow his property to be used, you cannot take a DVD you find, because it probably belongs to someone else physically, and he does not allow you to read it out. But once someone broke the contract and separated the information from the physical medium, there is no way you could claim any contract relationship with whoever the information ends up with. Even if you uphold EULAs, they can simply be stripped out.
The other way to uphold IP-like laws in AnCap is to claim that everyone who receives information from a contract breaker, thief or trespasser is a accomplice in the crime. This could work with non-disclosure agreements involving chief engineers who betray secret formulas, but it is highly unlikely to work with 12 year old girls who play music at their birthday parties. The moment the information is available “cleanly” without the contract limitation is the moment you lost control over it. This is pure speculation, but i doubt anyone would want to register with RIAA and allow them to rummage your stuff every time a song you paid money for ends up on the internet.
Note that this so far only deals with copying or 100% accurate replication of the information. Once we get into the realms of “inspired by” or “improved upon”, everything breaks down completely. On a practical scale, IP and patents are completely ridiculous. Just look up Heron of Alexandria to get a first impression.