Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Intellectual property/copyrights
Message-ID: <1804@looking.UUCP>
Date: 30 Jun 88 22:04:06 GMT
References: <9160@cisunx.UUCP> <1801@uhccux.UUCP> <807@netxcom.UUCP> <501@novavax.UUCP> <309@proxftl.UUCP> <2096@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 47

It is often said, "I don't like copyrights because they interfere with
the free flow of information."

On the surface, that seems true, but you may want to consider that it is
also highly likely that actually, the reverse is true.  If information
can't be owned, that may be the greatest impediment to the creation and
flow of *useful*, *valuable* information.

If one could not own the rights to "Star Wars" and charge admission to see
it, would there ever have been a "Star Wars" or anything like it?  Clearly
not, except it a complete totalitarian state where the government owns
everything.

So first, we must consider that the lack of ownership of intellectual
property would likely only help the flow of information that *already*
exists.

But it's not even that simple.  Much information that exists and flows
today flows chiefly because somebody (the owner) has a motive to *make* it
flow.  In a propertyless world, much of the good "free" information would
just sit there.

Even today, with the incentives, cheap I.P. like books need promotion,
distribution, mechanisms of review and resellers.  Many very good books
go nowhere if they aren't promoted.  Much good software dies and goes
nowhere because of bad marketing.   Even many good shareware products
only attain minor fame, if that.

The fact is that even today we face information overload.  There's just
too much chaff out there for us to find the wheat.  The most valuable
I.P. needs the incentive of ownership to make somebody push it.

After all this, there's a third factor, namely stagnation.  Imagine
the software world with the ownership of I.P. removed.  Say you write a
better operating system, or spreadsheet.  Is it going to zoom out and
replace what's there?  Hah.  If people didn't have to pay anything for
Lotus 1-2-3, nobody would ever get the chance to give their product an
edge through a lower price.  When people are constantly paying money for
new 1-2-3s as they expand, it's hard enough to get them to switch.  If
they can keep with the status quo for FREE, how easy will it be?


The creations of your own mind are the truest form of personal property
there is.  Just because information *could* be unowned doesn't mean that it
would be better if it were.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd.  --  Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473