Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bionet!ucselx!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!samsung!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!aero!aerospace.aero.org!abbott
From: abbott@aerospace.aero.org
Newsgroups: trial.misc.legal.software
Subject: Re: Intellectual Property
Message-ID: <80565@aerospace.AERO.ORG>
Date: 9 Aug 90 20:09:59 GMT
Sender: news@aerospace.aero.org
Reply-To: abbott@aerospace.aero.org ()
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Lines: 39


Brad Templeton writes:

| I say that intellectual property is the truest form of property from
| a philosophical standpoint, not a legal one.

What do you mean by "property from a philosophical standpoint?"

| ...
| Legal ownership is of course a construct of society.  But my relationship
| to my creations and my labour is real.  "Joe built that gadget, it is
| Joe's gadget." is a true statement regardless of the existence of any other
| people or any society or law.  "That is Joe's land" hasn't got nearly that
| strength.

If you are talking about recognition, why not just say so?  Why muddle
the issue by talking about property?  I agree that recognition is
important; plagiarism is considered one of the worst academic crimes.

| ...
| When it comes to patent[s], some express concern that people might patent
| "laws of nature."  I find little ambiguity.  It is clear that F = ma is
| a law of nature, it is equally clear that complex algorithms that nobody
| ever thought of before are not.  

I'm afraid its not all that clear to me.  As you say:

| Mathematics itself is a human construct.  Laws of nature can be 
| expressed within mathematics, but mathematics itself is no law of
| nature.

Besides, F=mA isn't really a law of nature; its a Newtonian
approximation (I believe).  So F=mA is just the expression of an
observation that has a relatively broad range of applicability.  On the
other hand, bubble sort always works.  So why isn't it a law of nature?
Whenever the sequence of operations specified by bubble sort occurs, the
result is a sorted list.

-- Russ Abbott