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by NeutralCrane 27 days ago
My personal opinion is that the very concept of IP misses the mark. “Property” requires scarcity. If I use something, it means someone else can’t use that thing. When I use a house for living, others are unable to do so. When I consume food or water, others people can’t do so.

Ideas aren’t scarce. Someone who reads a book, or looks at a picture, or makes use of a copy of software is not preventing other people from doing so. The idea that an idea can be restricted are given exclusive use to one particular party for any amount of time by law, is dystopic.

1 comments

Copies are not scarce, but the human effort to create the original is.

Copyright in its origin was a time limited adaptation of property to non material, creative works (not ideas, those are not copyrightable) and most derivates of it to incentive this effort. It's a compromise to combat the tragedy of the commons for the mutual benefit of the author and the general public.

Modern copyright has nothing to do with this and is indeed highly dystopic.