Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
I'm not sure that I agree with the assertion that we have a "natural right" to copy.
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Well, copying is one of the most basic things there is. It's how we learn almost everything we learn.
However, never underestimate the power of language. Immersing everyone in language like "copyright holder" certainly makes people assume the copying-monopoly is a right as opposed to a privilege or a bargain or somesuch. The same goes for newspeak* like "intellectual property" whose purpose is specifically to make immaterial things (such as privileges/bargains like copying-monopoly ("copyright") and idea-monopoly ("patents")) seem like actual property (and that propaganda campaign has been so successful that many people today think it's completely natural for immaterial "property" to be regarded as real property).
(*
"newspeak" is from the book
"1984" in which the government deliberately named concepts by their opposites for various psychological effects)