From: Michael S. Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Date: Mon May 10 1999 - 08:05:29 MDT
mark@unicorn.com wrote:
> david_musick@juno.com wrote:
> >Is it absolutely essential that people
> >believe in the fictional concept of "property rights" in order to
> >interact productively and peacefully?
>
> In the real world, yes. Numerous groups have tried to eliminate property
> rights to create this wonderful utopia, and have pretty well proven that
> it's impossible. Communism works in small family/tribal groups, but fails
> horribly when attempted on a large scale. At the same time, trying to
> create property rights where they can't reasonably exist -- e.g.
> copyright on electronic media -- fails almost as badly.
ON the contrary, it is quite easy to establish an internet based system of encrypted key registry approvals using a smartkey/PKI device. This will require a full time network connection, and a USB port on the user's machine. Rainbow Technologies has a great iKey system that can use some of the strongest encryption on a removable USB compatible smartkey. With it, the user's entire network permissions can be controlled, what apps they can use, etc, while at the same time the user's private key is never compromised to any system. Such systems are not in current use by anyone but the most high value software suppliers (CAD apps, etc) because everyone else gains more synergy in the market by allowing IP leakage that could be made up for with the expense of secure encryption in registration. While I currently own licenses to most of my software, I would say that at least 95% of apps I have learned to use were originally pirated copies or unregistered shareware. I found them useful but wanted tech support so I boug
ht licenses. This also applies to electronic data sources. Properly pakcaged, they can all be made secure.
THis is not so with printed media. With the popularity of desktop publishing, the printed word is no longer a very protectable media form for intellectual property. Back when few people owned expensive presses it was useful, but no longer.
Mike Lorrey
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