@nicholas @feld >with IP laws
There is no such thing as imaginary property laws; https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html
There are trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret laws that are all totally different and are not property laws.

>which it is even possible to apply private ownership
Due to not being property laws, they do not apply any sort of ownership - they rather apply a monopoly.

>no amount of legislators furiously writing in dusty tomes
Legislators furiously writing in dusty tomes and courts can and do enforce monopolies - just because there's nothing physically preventing you from distributing copies does not mean a business and/or a court can't stop you from doing so.