clipka wrote:
> Well, I guess it's the *right to copy* (hence the name), which you can *own*.

Yes, but me violating your copyright doesn't mean you don't own the 
copyright, so it's not theft.

> you do own it, it is your exclusive right to decide who can execute and
> therefore benefit from this right.

No, that's not correct either.

>> Say I go to the store and buy a book whose copyright is owned by Fred. I
>> then take that book home and make a copy. What does Fred own that I stole?
> 
> His privilege to decide who is entitled to make copies and who isn't.

I didn't steal his privilege. He still owns that privilege and he can still 
sell that privilege to other people.

And, as I've said, copyright isn't the right to give people permission to 
make copies. It's the right to stop people from making copies. You can own 
the copyright and still not be allowed to make copies of what you own the 
copyright on, let alone license others to do it.

> I guess the problem of understanding copyright is rooted in the conceptual
> difference between ownership and posession.

No, it's not.

> the lines of "handling something in a way that is normally up to the owner to
> decide, without their consent";

So, rape is a form of theft?  That seems odd.

> And that stealing from a copyright
> owner is not stealing his work, but taking away from him the exclusive
> privilege to decide what happens with it.

Sure. It varies in different countries, as you say. But at least in the USA, 
it's not theft. Nor is it *like* theft.


>>> Intellectual property is, well, property.
>> Not really. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a separate word for it.
> 
> That's not very logical. In the same manner you could argue that a sledge hammer
> is not a hammer. But I guess we all agree that it is, and that it's just a
> special kind.

I said "not really", not "not at all."  Intellectual property, tangible 
property, and real property are all three kinds of property. It makes no 
more sense to say "I stole your copyright by making a copy" than it does to 
say "I stole your house by walking through it without permission."

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

Post a reply to this message