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[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
[[[Quote
Lynn:
Your said "the average person
seems to be beginning to doubt the value of IP
laws". The average person
who uses IP like music and software (which is an
expression of value) is
very likely to pirate IP if there is no protective
measures in place. Im sure
the Cookie Monster would doubt the value of a
padlock
on the cookie jar. ]]]End
Quote.
Exactly, my point. If the
average person is the Coookie Monster then they are
doubting the value of the
locks on the cookie jar (the IP laws). I never
said that people doubt the
value of the underlying work. If they did, they
might not bother with copying
it at all, except maybe out of a behavioral
pattern which is beyond
the scope of this discussion. Furthermore, if the
average person would sooner
ignore IP laws rather than respect them, it
follows that they recognize
little value in having such laws personally apply
to them.
[[[Quote Lynn:
IP laws protect those who
invest in IP, because IP IS property. ]]]End Quote.
This is how the laws are
being structured, but the original intent was not to
create a new form of property,
it was to secure rights to an expression of an
idea which itself cannot
be owned. The property is not the underlying
material that someone "invests"
in creating, the property is the right to
sell, copy, etc. that material.
And that's what property is: the right to possess, use and
enjoy a determinate thing. (that's Black's Law Dictionary language
for what it's worth).
Property is a series of rights recognized by the law: if the deed
to your house says that I have the right to walk through your woods to
the fishin' hole, that's a property right that I can't touch, but it's
something I can use and profit from. If I have a freehold estate
(ie, own land) and grant you a leasehold estate to it (ie, rent to you),
I'm not (generally) entitled to possession, but I retain other rights as
defined in our lease. What's a bank account but the right to withdraw
and deposit money? Why isn't that property? Intellectual property
is the same thing: an incorporeal right to use and enjoy the profits from
a fixed expression of creative work, your attempts to define property more
narrowly notwithstanding.
IMHO the penduluum has swung too far in the direction of holders of
IP, and many corporations are over-aggresive in protecting their interests.
But that doesn't mean IP isn't property, or that society doen't generally
benefit from IP laws.
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