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

Re: Oops, you missed some things!

Author:Joshua Allen
Posted:9/1/2000; 9:28:47 AM
Topic:The Lie of "IP"
Msg #:20697 (In response to 20688)
Prev/Next:20696 / 20698

Since the invention of the printing press, other people's stuff has been trivial to copy. Enforcement of IP on a wide scale is not so difficult. Look at the e-books being sold at Barnes and Noble right now.

Or what about software? People (not just companies) still do go into stores to buy something burned onto disk, believe it or not! Just because it is possible to steal, and not even that difficult to steal, does not mean that everybody will steal. I once saw a consumer reports study that was testing house locks. They gave their testers a two-hour training class in lock picking. They then tested the major locks on the market. Their testers were able to pick all major locks on the market within five minutes! My point is that most things are not hard to steal. It is not hard to plaigarize another person's speech. It's not even hard for a criminal to hijack a truck carrying semiconductor chips and steal the contents. There are just things that people don't do. We all pretend we don't know that your house could be robbed in five minutes. We strive to create a society in which it is cheaper and less risky for you to get what you want through voluntary exchanges. This isn't a function of the physical laws of nature. It is difficult to steal because we, as a society, have collectively decided to make it so. Focusing on yet another form of distribution is missing the point.

-J

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