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Originally Posted by msundman
Lots of talk about property rights here without actually saying how it relates to ebooks.. I assume most of you understand that copyright weakens natural property rights, but I just thought I'd point it out in case it's unclear to someone.
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Copyright limits natural (an odd word, that) property rights--just like laws against gun usage in city limits, or laws against dumping toxic chemicals, or laws about noise levels. All of those limit how you can use your legally-owned property.
We have plenty of laws that say "for [X] type of property, the following uses are forbidden." These can include burning it, putting it underground (even on your own land), making some noises with it, displaying it in public (certain magazines come to mind), sharing it with children, driving it without a license, and so on. We've decided, as as society, that some property uses should be restricted to keep us all safe and healthy. Or safer and healthier, anyway.
Copyright is one of those. It says, you may not use this legally-owned property in some ways. If you own a table, you can make & sell a copy of it; if you own a book, you may not. This limitation is supposed to encourage authors & artists to widely release their creations. It works... the problem is balancing the time period for blocking people's property rights against the encouragement factor.
I agree that copyright lengths should be a *lot* shorter. I don't agree that it should be abolished, or that there's anything inherently wrong with limiting people's use of their own property.