[GRLUG] Itunes and France

[Ron Lauzon]

David Pembrook wrote:
> But are you saying that a company does not have a right to make
> something and own it? I love open source and thats a choice for me and
> many others. But if I make something the world wants, do they have a
> right to it by demanding it from me? Are intelectual rights obsolete?
>   

According to our patent and copyright laws: No.

That may seem bad, but those laws reflect HOW new works are created - 
namely new works aren't "created".  When an author writes a story, a 
musician writes music, a programmer developers software, they all dip 
into the public domain.  They all use prior art to build their works 
on.  They are less "creators" and more "builders".  They take what's 
already been done and rearrange it, use it differently and make 
something different.

We add to the mix the fact that monopolies have been proven to be bad 
things.

So the patent and copyright laws were created to balance the bad (i.e. a 
limited monopoly for a limited time) with the good (i.e. getting access 
to new works and making money for their builders).

The concept of "Intellectual Property" never existed until recently.  
This concept lets the co-called "creators" treat their ideas as property 
- with all the rights included with that.  Like ownership after death.  
Like being able to pass the ownership of that idea on to your heirs.  
This is inherently wrong with anything intellectual.  Ideas are not 
physical and ownership of them causes long term problems (like nearly 
all the issues we are having with patent trolls and copyright hogs).

And I'll remind you what the government did with Standard Oil and AT&T.

-- 
Ron Lauzon - rlauzon at acm dot org
   Homepage: http://7lauzon.home.comcast.net/
   Weblog: http://ronsapartment.blogspot.com/

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Microsoft Free since July 06, 2001
Running Mandriva Linux 2006