From: Thom Quinn (swo@execpc.com)
Date: Wed Mar 19 1997 - 15:54:48 MST
China does not always recognize propery or human rights, much less
intellectual property (your brain and all its contents are only supposed
to think one way (the right way) anyway in fascist regimes)!
>
> > All civilized societies also recognize common concepts of intellectual
> > property, notably concepts like the patent, copyright, and trademarks.
>
> This is manifestly false, unless your definition of "civilization"
> includes it, in which case it is tautological. China, Pakistan, and
> several other countries have no such concepts, and no need of them.
> The United States had no such laws before the USPTO was created.
> The very concept itself is a denial of the individual rights you
> seek to protect: an individual who has acquired some knowledge by
> legal non-coercive means has the right to use whatever knowledge he
> has to further his life's goals without coercive interference from
> the state on behalf of some other claimant to a monopoly on that
> knowledge. Patents and Copyrights are coercive monopolies, not
> properties (trademarks, in contrast, /are/ properties because their
> use by non-owners constitutes making a fraudulent substantive claim).
>
> The policies you advocate here are no more justified than any other
> government interference, and what's worse, they give a justification
> that sounds libertarian in principle while stabbing true liberty in
> the back. Those who wish to protect their intellectual discoveries
> must do so themselves with contracts, technologies, and other non-
> coercive means, not beg the state to do it for them at gunpoint.
>
> --
> Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>
> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
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