> > > > > His question was: what difference is there between a creator's right > > > to chis own work, and other property rights? > > Okay, I guess I, like Michael Torrie, lied and have to post today. ;) > > The difference is that the book is intellectual property. That's a mess > all of its own. When you buy a book you can do whatever you want it the > physical properties of it. You can sell it or read it or use it as > firewood if you want to. You haven't bought the rights to the > intellectual property though. > > -- > Michael Golden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >
Also, the protection of intellectual property is purely an artificial one that is supposed to benefit society. If I take a physical item that you own that is wrong. If I use/copy an idea^ of yours that is only wrong because we as society have defined it as such. However, for the good of society, we have also defined a limit on how long you can maintain you monopoly on that idea^. Think about it. Before copyright and patent laws if you built a printing press, then I could look at yours and build my own and I haven't cheated you out of anything legally. Copyright and patent laws were originally designed to reward creative thinking but eventually allow society to freely benefit from the use of such thinking. ^idea being defined here as an invention (patents) or artwork (copyright). Josh ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
