Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: The Lie of "Intellectual Property"

Author:Seth Gordon
Posted:8/31/2000; 11:40:54 AM
Topic:The Lie of "IP"
Msg #:20593 (In response to 20577)
Prev/Next:20592 / 20594

Most people would agree that intellectual property is, in some crucial way, unlike movable physical property. However this fact in and of itself does not invalidate the whole notion of IP. It just means that laws that make sense when applied to movable property don't make sense when applied to IP, and therefore IP needs different laws. But IP already has different laws. (Likewise, the laws regulating real estate, money, labor, and corporate entities have to take into account how these forms of property differ from movable physical property.) If "property", in general, is just a legal abstraction that should be arranged for the public benefit (I know this is heresy to some people), then there's nothing fundamentally immoral or silly about creating a legal abstraction called "intellectual property", if that is set up in a way that serves the public benefit.

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