Verily I say unto thee, that Gregory Shearman spake thusly:
> Why shouldn't *everyone* get copyright protection for the product of
> their labours? Why should the bathroom attendant lose money because
> someone else is "thieving" their copyright by folding towels just
> like the original bathroom attendant? Why shouldn't the original
> chicken neck-wringer get royalties from everyone who wrings a chicken
> neck in the same way...
>
> I mean... it's a *right* isn't it? People should be remunerated in
> perpetuity for their original labours, right?
Oh, of course. Naturally.
The analogies I always come back to are:
. Man goes to work, sits at his desk, photographs himself working at his
desk, frames said photo, then sits it on his desk. He goes home, never
returns to work, but upon discovering no wages in his bank account at
the end of the month - he calls his boss and demands to know where his
money is. Boss says "You don't work, you don't get paid". Man replies
"But I *am* working, at my desk, right now". Boss disagrees "I don't
see you". Man says: "That photo is my Intellectual Property. It's my
work. You're benefiting from my work, therefore you must pay".
. Two scenarios:
Scenario 1 - opportunist thief spots a nice car, approaches car,
quickly looks around then pulls out a wire coat hanger to pull the
door mechanism open. He gets in, hotwires the ignition, then drives
off at high speed, never to be seen again. Car owner runs out of
house, shaking his fists. Assuming he'd just bought the car, and had
no insurance, he must then replace this missing tangible property, at
cost. The car is gone. It's not there. He doesn't have a car any more.
The car has in fact been stolen.
Scenario 2 - Gormless Japanese tourist wanders into residential
neighbourhood, spots a rare American muscle car, and enthusiastically
takes a photo of it, then wanders off. Car owner comes screaming out
of his house, shouting "That's *my* IP, it's *my* IP. You stole my IP.
Quick, for God's sake, somebody call the police! My IP has been
stolen". His precious muscle car is, in fact, still exactly where he
left it - undamaged, in fact completely untouched. He has lost
nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Some gormless tourist committed to film,
what he also committed to the "data bank" called his mind. The car is
not missing, it doesn't need to be replaced, it will cost the owner
nothing. The owner still has his car, therefore it hasn't been stolen.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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| "The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which
| the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf
| denounces him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty.
| Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of
| the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today
| among human creatures." ~ Abraham Lincoln
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