Seegras Logbook

Software Piracy (‘soft-“wer ‘pI-r&-sE): Robbery of software on the high seas; the taking of software from others on the open sea by open violence; without lawful authority, and with intent to steal.

Property, you see, is a tangible good. A natural monopoly. If you give it away, you don’t possess it anymore, you can’t sell it twice. And states and countries levy taxes on it.

Would you really want copy-able works of art to be “property”? I guess not. I could buy a copy (or the original, since it doesn’t matter, does it?) of your novel, reprint it and sell it cheaper. No. What you want is a monopoly, and this is exactly what you’ve got with copyright.

Even more detached are patents. Whereas with copyright, you’ve got a monopoly on usage of a given work, even if its not a natural monopoly, with patents you don’t even get that. You don’t have the right to implement a patent, you only have the right to exclude others from doing it. It is, in a sense, the opposite of “property”, a right to keep others from enjoying their property or their monopolies.

So maybe you should stop making analogies to “property”, or “thievery” or even “piracy” pertaining to said copyrightable work.

So what you are talking of is “Intellectual Monopoly”. Get used to it.