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Dear all
What is missing from this discussion on plagiarism, intellectual property,
copyright/left is the
political basis (economic/political philosophy) which drives one's views.
Frederick as some of us
know, is suspicious of capitalism, perhaps opposed to it. From what I gather,
his political
philosophy is based on a co-operative, communal model of human living (I did
not write communist).
It is certainly a legitimate political basis albeit difficult to adopt given
greed and human
nature. His political philosophy drives his views on shared knowledge,
copyleft, etc. One hiccup
with this view is how to justify shared ownership of ideas and not personal
property (actually one
can justify it but in practice does it mean I can reach into your house and
share your furniture
without permission)?
The capitalistic model which reflects individual ownership of property,
including ideas
(intellectual property) drives present patent/copyright laws (mostly written in
the USA and
exported through WTO). The place to change what some see as draconian copyright
laws is the US
Congress. Currently such activism will not have much success considering the US
Congress is
controlled by big business and in many cases substitutes for them. At best we
can hope for humane
capitalism which respects individual rights but does not exploit.
There is the socialist view, at least with respect to public goods/industries
and mega-services
like transportation, post, energy where government is the nationalised owner.
So far, I have not
seen any proposition where government should own ideas - which if made - would
be interesting.
May be Frederick's co-operative view will dominate 50 years from now. For
better or worse, it is
at the margins currently and not yet mainstream. We will see.
May truth prevail.
Regards,
George
