Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
But that argument goes both ways. Those who do not like the way intangible goods are treated like property want to change the word so it seems like we should not treat it like property. But - surprise, surprise - business isn't particularly interested in making such a change because they like treating IP as property, it works for them.
I offered the financial connection as a non-conspiracy-theory explanation for the term: in financial terms intangibles like this have always been referred to as a form of property. So when you're creating something for business purposes it is not a big surprise that terminology used by business might make its way into the discussion.
And I am not responsible for the expansion of the term. It's not my fault, for example, that the general purpose dictionary Merriam-Webster include for property "something to which a person or business has a legal title*". They also include specific (legal) definitions for intangible property and intellectual property. (And a rather circular definition of legal title as: "the means or right by which one owns or possesses property".)
The point being that such use as (I think) was probably first established for business and financial purpose (the treatment of intangibles as property that could be used in trade) has become common enough to have made its way into general dictionary definitions.
So arguing that copyright is not property is now similar to arguing that decimate does not mean to cause great destruction. Historically the word may have had a more specific meaning, but the world has moved on and the meaning has changed. |
Well, no because currently copyright is not treated as property, so while big businesses such as Disney might want it to be treated as property and might lobby the government to make it happen like they did in the 70's (it's called rent seeking), it doesn't follow that we should make that lobbying easier by adopted their terminology. Calling copyright property within the legal or financial profession might be useful short hand for both actual property as well as things like copyright, patents, leases, options or loans, but using it in that manner in general simply concedes the debate before it's started.