Geek Speak — HabitableZone

Geek Speak » in reply to "true" property rights.

Good point.
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Just because intellectual property is a valid concept does not mean that the laws intended to protect it are infallible, or even correctly written.

Copyright law was intended to protect the rights of an author or other creator for a certain arbitrary length of time. A compromise between a situation which would allow a creator no profit from his work, and one which would tie up such rights forever long after he and any heirs are long gone.

Making the philosophical and political theory work in practice is, as Ayn Rand said, what the field of law is supposed to be about.

Right now the entire concept of intellectual property is treading a tightrope as we enter an era where mass duplication of even complex works like movies is becoming almost effortless. When movie copyrights were first issued, the technology to copy a film even once required a photo studio and major equipment. Now, with the push of a button, it can be copied millions of times with the only limit being bandwidth.

It's even worse for music and text.

I hope everybody can work things out to keep that balance we need.

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