Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Really, Steve, I couldn't disagree with you more. As more and more people produce "intellectual" rather than "physical" property, it can only become more and more commercially valued.
Take drug research as one simple example. Drug companies can spend literally billions to produce a commercially successful drug and, at the end of the day, what they are basically producing is a chemical formula - intellectual property. It's that that they "own" and which has value, not the physical chemicals which go to manufacture the drug; they often cost mere pennies.
If they couldn't profit from that chemical formula - that "information" - they wouldn't spend the money to produce it in the first place.
A more "mundane" example; the recipe for coke is "information" which belongs to the Coca Cola company and which only they are allowed to use. Once again, intellectual property which has immense commercial value.
|
Harry with all due respect you got 2 things wrong.
*Ultimatly* All information is free. That is currently in most countries 70 years after death of the creator, or 90 years after creation in case of group work. Having right on Information permanently is only mindboggling, as the kids of the kids of the kids of the kids of shakespear still should get money every time we perform shakespear... It was always only a tempory admission, at one point it becomes culture and actually part of what we are..
Second the coke formular is a trade *secret*, they could have patented it a hundread years ago, but that patent would have runned out by far now. Which is BTW. a patent thats something fully different than a copyright, you cannot "copyright" a recipe anyway, you need a patent. Well the copyright would be on the right of copying exact that piece of pape. But not of taking the idea and just use it or present it in another wording.
Coca Cola is doing well to keep the recipe secret, that works indefinetly as long as they can manage to keep it secret. If they are found out, they cannot go to any court if someone else starts to produce coke.
If a drug company invests to create a new medicament to do get a patent on it, and the right to exclusevly sell it for 20 years. After 20 years altough it becomes "general knowledge" and anybody may. Then we get generica being much cheaper. 20 years is enough time to make a reasonable profit of the investion. But we talk about copyright here, and this is patent law. Its really quite a different "construction site" to talk about, and I think this topic is hot already enough without throwing in new things. Lets keep it on topic, shall we?