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

Re: got IP game?

Author:David McCusker
Posted:9/21/2000; 2:31:11 PM
Topic:got IP game?
Msg #:21612 (In response to 21609)
Prev/Next:21611 / 21613

Jim Lyon: I think that a discussion of IP needs to start with why it was invented

It's a great idea to look for the why in everything, since it lets one try to redesign things without all the baggage cluttering later attempts to solve a problem. But one can't easily discover all the why's because they might not be apparent. (This is part of the basis of Christopher Alexander's design pattern theory, that good designs sometimes use evolved reasons without explaining them.)

Every 'why' we discover helps, but folks who attempt to redesign some things from scratch are often doomed to an unhappy experience. (If I did not add the caveat in the second clause, someone would ridicule me for my naive belief that things can be easily redesigned.)

Jim Lyon: I believe that we have arrived at this point because it's in the interests of the major holders of IP to get the rules rewritten to maximize the value that they derive from that IP, even if it reduces the value that society as a whole receives.

And it's in their interests to steer rhetoric and analysis away from anything that would interfere with their interests.

Jim Lyon: Perhaps your references to game theory describe the dynamics by which the law evolves.

At game theory I'm an ignorant laymen without references.

Jim Lyon: bringing in loaded words like "piracy"

If we start discussing piracy and copying, it will kill this thread dead in it's tracks. It's a rathole that prevents us from thinking about IP from first principles. What to do about copying is a test case that one applies after making up some rules -- what happens when we try this approach?

Unfortunately folks use the IP term to refer to two mostly unrelated things. The issue of piracy applies to the one not relevant here, which is whether existing material is copied or propagated. We should be discussing only issues involved in the creation of IP, and things that impact that, like patents and other folderol that aim to interfere with the ability of folks to make things at all.

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