Re: OMG!

["Sheldon Simms" <sheldon@semanticedge.com>]

Im Artikel <dOgR6.555$Uj5.143012@typhoon2.ba-dsg.net> schrieb "Frank
Townsend" <ftownsen@iamdigex.net>:

> Real and personal property are as much creatures of the law as
> intellectual property.
> 
> Both are "bundles of rights" which only exist because of enforceable
> laws, just as intellectual property is characterized by certain rights.

You're partly right, but there is a real difference. Real property is
something that I can possess and, when I possess it, no one else
can possess it. Therefore, even without law I can claim something
as my own. As long as it is in my possession then I have the use of
it and other people don't. If someone takes it from me then they
have the use of it, and I don't.

None of this applies to intellectual property, which is why the idea
of intellectual property is relatively new. Not too long ago, there
was absolutely no protection for written works or other intellectual
property, even though there was a well defined body of law protecting
real property.

Why were intellectual property laws introduced? Not because of
the righteous conviction that "theft" was occurring. But instead,
because of a rational argument that limited protection was the best
way to help society by encouraging the production of new works.
It was never the intention of early intellectual property laws to
help individual IP creators in their righteous struggle for exclusive
rights that allow them to deny society the benefit of the works.

Although it makes sense that when someone possesses exclusive
rights to some work, that includes the right to intentionally withhold
the work, the fact is that IP laws grant a time-limited exclusive right
specifically for the purpose of ensuring that works eventually pass
into the public domain so that they are not withheld from the public
forever.

As far as the discussion in this group goes, it's also important to
remember that we're not even talking about cases where the rights
holder is intentionally withholding the work, but instead cases where
the rights holder is neither distributing nor withholding, he is
ignoring the work completely.

-- 
sheldon@semanticedge.com  "The term (denotation t) denotes the object denoted
                           by the object denoted by t." -- KIF