Subject:
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Re: Goodness of Man? (was: Re: Merry Christmas from the Libertarian Party
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 6 Jan 2000 19:48:47 GMT
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Reply-To:
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mattdm@mattdm&stopspammers&.org
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Viewed:
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1749 times
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Larry Pieniazek <lar@voyager.net> wrote:
> What's your thinking on this, if you posit that ideas ARE property? Are
> they unique or are they reproducable?
I think ideas are not identical to physical items, and therefore not
identical to physical property. But it is very useful to extend our concepts
for dealing with physical property to the realm of ideas.
Tangent: this is something to be careful with, because they _aren't_ the
same. It leads to bad termnology, like calling illegal software use
"piracy", which glosses over some key differences. (I'm not advocating
illegal software use by any means. I just think that in this case using that
term clouds the issue and isn't helpful.)
On the other hand, since we are thought-processing beings, ideas are very
important to what makes us _us_. The spread of ideas is good for humanity.
One way we've found to encourage this spread is through giving property-like
rights to people who have them. Historically, in doing so, we've attached
expiration dates and other strict limits to these rights, which is also a
good thing, because it's ridiculous to say: "I'm sorry, you can't utter that
phrase because someone said that two hundred years ago and it is the
property of her heirs."
The "life-affirming" yardstick you mentioned earlier can be applied here.
Ideas are part of what makes us human. That which encourages more ideas is
good. If patent law is encouraging the overall spread of information, great.
If amazon.com is patenting the concept of clicking once to buy something,
then something is broken.
--
Matthew Miller ---> mattdm@mattdm.org
Quotes 'R' Us ---> http://quotes-r-us.org/
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