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http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719339-7.html
Look – intellectual property isn’t really a reasonable thing. If you have a idea 20 minutes sooner than I do, should you own that idea? If I claim that I invented the number 2, and that all numbers that are factors of the number two should have to pay licensing fees to me, does that make it either true or reasonable?
In order to try and stem the flow of napster et al, they’re willing to throw us in jail for life. It is time to remove this government and replace it with something sane. How long before individual words become intellectual property, and the Heinlien estate sues anyone who uses grok without paying a license fee? How long before I get charged with piracy because I can remember a song? The slope has gone beyond slippery, and is now approaching levels of frictionlessness commonly associated with mag-lev trains. The ‘older and wiser’ heads are abusing their position with nothing but interest in personal gain.. how long before they ask for the death sentance for people making illegal copies of Word? Which circle of Hell am I in, anyway?
May 16th, 2007 at 8:52 am
i think intellectual property is a reasonable thing. what if you put all your heart and soul into writing a novel, wrung yourself dry, and ended up with something beyond anything you thought you could accomplish. buzzing with a sense of your own accomplishment, quivering with the thought of publishing, quitting your shitty day job, embarking on the glamorous life of the full-time novelist…
and then some talentless, scheming, shyster motherfucker reads your blog where you celebrate your feat, hacks into your ‘puter, steals your novel, and publishes it himself, making millions of dollars when it shoots to the top of the new york times bestseller list, garnering himself slots on david letterman and leno.
how would you feel about intellectual property laws then?
May 16th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I’ve read lawyer-types on slashdot claim that there are rulings indicating four sequential notes constitutes copyright infringement. This indicates there are less than 70,000 original songs.
May 17th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Hrm. One would hope that they’re somewhat flexible.. for example, if I play four notes on a guitar with a lot of bend, and someone else had four notes on a flute that were the same, would it count? What if I play them with slightly different timing? How different must the timing be to qualify? What about tempo? How about reversing them?
This is just nuts.
May 22nd, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Don’t be silly! 😉 They won’t protect the use of individual words! There are so many other things they’re working on that will make them so much more money. Like Genes, Reality, Air, Water and the conept of independent thought!
Those are things you can kiss goodbye unless you have the big bucks it’ll take to keep you rolling in them.
I like the intelligent, hybrid-middle-ground that common people overlook all the time less and less by the day.