From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Jun 18 2002 - 14:33:23 MDT
> <3D0DEC5B.E2F3344B@datamann.com> <20020617180503.GB13969@piclab.com> <3D0F2982.948AA143@datamann.com> <20020618184345.GA7572@piclab.com>
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Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> And anyway, why is it so easy for a capitalist like yourself to simply
> accept a law that forbids a profit-making activity but not the same
> activity for free? An activity should be either legal or illegal based
> on other factors, shouldn't it? And if it's legal, shouldn't it also
> be legal to profit from it? Clearly what you're doing is not protecting
> the /rights/ of the author, but the /market/ of the author, and that
> sure smells like a subsidy to me. As a capitalist myself, I have to
> assume that such a subsidy is wrong unless I hear /very/ good reasons
> for it.
A fence is not a subsidy, just as a tax break is not welfare. That
should be obvious enough to you. What you should be questioning, if you
think IP is such a bad idea, why it is that people can own real estate
permanently, when they can only own IP for a temporary period. Since
land ownership at the time of the original land grant was based on the
pioneer improving the land, the pioneer had a right to enjoy the
benefits of their improvement exclusive of others using it, just as
inventors and artists do with their IP for a temporary period. WHile we
are at it, lets just end land ownership too.
The art that a patent or copyright protects is similarly an
'improvement' upon nothingness that the creator is granted exclusive
control of to encourage their original investment of time/money. Why
should IP be only temporarily controlled?
Furthermore, the claim that IP isn't finite is false. There are only so
many new works of art produced at any given time, and once a work is
created, any other production is merely copying, not creating. It takes
time and energy to create a work of art, which are also in finite
supply. Once an idea has hit the public domain, it is impossible for
someone to create it again, on virgin ground.
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