Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
If you come up with an idea for a machine that will solve the world's energy problems, and by the way make you rich... you blab about it to me at a bar... and I build it first, making the money that you won't... I've just stolen your intellectual property.
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That's the bottom line...IP is the ability to prevent someone else from going home and writing, composing, or building something. It's the ability to control another person's life.
You can not draw this symbol, because I say so. (The symbol can be any corporate logo.)
The only reason we tolerate any IP is to encourage innovation, by rewarding the authors & inventors.
Today's IP ensures that big corporations that do not innovate are ensured a monopoly and indefinite profits. That's why the RIAA can (against my will) collect royalties under a "mandatory license" on the music I wrote, performed, and mixed. That's a 7.5% royalty from online radio stations. If I want my cut, I have to pay an up front fee of $100,000.00 US. (sure...ha ha ha...the bomb is in the mail.)
The big corporations are tired of "wasting" money on R&D, so current IP law discourages innovation. Why do you think the copyright on Windows 95 will not ever expire? (It's currently set to 2090, but that's going to be extended ex-post-facto.)
Andy