[PKFFW]

Originally Posted by gmw

You replaced that with: "Whilst, like anything at all, IP and PP can be compared to each other if one wishes to do so, IP and PP are so significantly different that to attempt to treat them the same under the law and have a workable and enforceable solution is simply not possible."

Which is close enough to meaning the same thing, don't you think?

Not at all. I admitted they can be compared, which my original post explicitly stated they could not, and I reiterated my point that I don't think it is possible to treat them the same under the law because whilst they have similarities they are not the same thing.

Originally Posted by gmw

There, that wasn't so hard. The rest is just a matter of degree. I believe the similarities are such that it is a societal choice whether we treat copyright the same as a physical property and offer eternal copyright. I don't believe we should, but I don't see it as impossible.

No, you keep on suggesting at least that they are the same, which they are not. Society can choose to treat water and air as the same things but that does not make them the same.

I still contend that it would not actually be a workable situation to treat them the same under the law. There would be complications right from the start that would need to be resolved. The resolution would inevitably result in IP and PP being treated differently under the law. Which, funnily enough, they already are.

Originally Posted by gmw

I don't really expect you to agree, I was just hoping to show you that this middle ground existed, and I'm standing on it.

There really isn't any middle ground on my actual point though.

Either IP and PP are in fact the same thing or they are not. I contend they are not. You seemingly contend that they are. There isn't any ground in which they are both the same thing and not the same thing at the same time. This is not quantum physics after all, the probability wave has been collapsed, the box has been opened.

Having said that, yes I totally agree with you that there are some legal similarities between IP and PP and yes society can choose to treat them the same under the law. If that is the middle ground of which you speak then I'm on it right there with you. However, even conceding that to be true I still don't believe they are the same thing in actuality regardless of whether society chose to claim they are nor do I believe it would work in the legal world.