Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!udel!gatech!hubcap!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!ucsdhub!esosun!seismo!sundc!hqda-ai!logi-dc!joe
From: joe@logi-dc.UUCP (Joe Dzikiewicz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc
Subject: Re: Copyrights and wrongs...
Summary: implications of no intellectual property rights
Message-ID: <102@logi-dc.UUCP>
Date: 17 Feb 88 15:39:19 GMT
References: <6999@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Logicon, Inc., Fairfax, Va., USA
Lines: 46


The primary problem of eliminating all intellectual property rights
lies in their very reason for existance.  Patents and copyrights 
(which are truly just different faces of the same coin) exist because
society sees some benefits in creation of new products.  Use of
intellectual property rights is the only way to reward a creator
with the benefits of his creation (short of the satisfaction of
creation: I don't rule this out, it just happens that satisfaction 
doesn't pay the rent).

Removing intellectual property rights would remove all incentive
for companies to put money into research and development.  After
all, why should Spacely Sprockets put millions into developing 
a new widget when Amalgamated Amalgamations could turn around, 
produce the same kind of widget, and save itself the development
costs?  More to the point for those of us on this net, 
what would programming become if we removed intellectual property 
rights?  If a programmer did not own what he produced, who would 
pay him to produce it?  

Admittedly, in the short term we would have more efficient distribution
of what is now available.  Since the controlling factor in the price
of any commodity would be the manufacturing and distribution of
that commodity, the most efficient at these tasks would prevail and
prices would go down.  By removing intellectual property rights, however,
you remove all incentives to develop new products.

Because, no offense guys, I don't think that the major developments
in the software field would have occurred without major corporate
backing.  The hacker sitting at his home computer developing a product
that revolutionizes the world, and doing so out of pure love
of programming, is a myth.  And yet, without intellectual property
rights, we would depend on that hacker to make all of the new
developments in software.

And one other problem: if we remove any financial incentives to
creation, we limit creation to those who do not need the financial
incentives.  I would hate to see writing, performing, and programming
turned over to the idle rich, those who would not have to spend their
time working to feed a family.

So, in conclusion, removing intellectual property rights is a 
nice idea.  Its only problem is that it would not work.


	Joe Dzikiewicz