Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
I understand where they're coming from; I just don't don't agree with it.
I personally see no difference between intellectual property and tangible property. If an author has to give up his rights 70 years after death, then so should a farmer. If society benefits from a book entering public domain, then society will also benefit when a farm enters public domain.
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Here's a clear distiction between the two.
Can you make a copy of a farm? A copy of the same land, the same improvements? How about 10,000 copies? I'm not talking about taking another piece of land and making it a farm, I mean a copy, that no part of it ever existed before.
Of course not. Can't be done.
But you
can make an infinite number of copies of a piece of "Intellectual Property".
This is an inherent difference. Because of this difference, a different legal structure needs to be in place
for each kind of property, acknowedging the unique characteristics of each type. And because of those differences, the rules are not going to be the same, due to those very same differences.