On a lighter note -- somebody's got serious sense of humour there: http://www.ivanhoffman.com/awards.html
(that's part of the website of the lawyer in question, as linked to from Techdirt)
Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
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Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#22Can't argue with that. 'Course, geniuses like this particular copyright lawyer would note that laws prohibiting strip mining Yosemite "go against free market capitalism" too. More limits on "free market capitalism" will thankfully continue to elevate us a bit above what amounts to the brainless economics and political philosophies of cancer cells.
Actually, it's just wrong. Copyright is an artificial, state-enforced restriction on competition. In a free market, people should be able to compete.
Copyright is the opposite of the free market.
Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#23Can't argue with that. 'Course, geniuses like this particular copyright lawyer would note that laws prohibiting strip mining Yosemite "go against free market capitalism" too. More limits on "free market capitalism" will thankfully continue to elevate us a bit above what amounts to the brainless economics and political philosophies of cancer cells.
Actually, it's just wrong. Copyright is an artificial, state-enforced restriction on competition. In a free market, people should be able to compete. Copyright is the opposite of the free market.
Property law is an artificial, state-enforced restriction on competition. In a free market, people should be able to compete.
Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would call the Rolex/iPod examples fraud, wouldn't you? "Free market capitalism" is only rarely conflated with anarchy. (don't get me wrong, I agree that Intellectual Property is the opposite of "free market")
Do people who buy fake Rolexes think they are real, or fakes? If you go into a jewellery shop and spend a lot of money on a Rolex but it turns out to be fake, then sure, it's probably fraud. But if you buy one out on the street for 10 bucks, then I hardly think it's fraud. But these things are independent of the physical form of the thing sold; it comes down to the understanding of what is being sold, as in a contrac…
If you know it's a fake, then why does it matter what the label says?
Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#25Can't argue with that. 'Course, geniuses like this particular copyright lawyer would note that laws prohibiting strip mining Yosemite "go against free market capitalism" too. More limits on "free market capitalism" will thankfully continue to elevate us a bit above what amounts to the brainless economics and political philosophies of cancer cells.
Actually, it's just wrong. Copyright is an artificial, state-enforced restriction on competition. In a free market, people should be able to compete. Copyright is the opposite of the free market.
[deleted]
Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#26Pure free market capitalism would be if I could buy your book the day it's released, make photocopies, and sell them outside the bookstore for cheaper. Pure free market capitalism would let me make a fake Rolex. It would let me reverse-engineer an iPod and sell it with the label "iPod." There are downsides to this, and that's why we have IP laws. But those laws are not free market capitalism; they are restraints on i…
When the pioneer goes out into the wilderness and establishes a farm, doing the hard work of removing stumps and planting a crop, he has added to the value of that land and deserves to have ownership recognized and protected.
The freedom of others to wander the wilderness, eating whatever they find is taken away. But it is reasonable to curtail it, because agriculture is very productive compared to the hunter gatherer approach. And it is just that the one that plants should be the one that gets to eat the results or trade it for the work of other people.
Its also reasonable that when it takes time and effort to develop a solution to a problem that the one solving it should be able to derive financial benefit from it.
If we don't want people to grow food, live in houses or build Disney Land, we should eliminate physical property rights. And if we don't want people to invent smart phones, cures for cancer and televisions, we should eliminate patents.
Why should we curtail the humans freedom to go anywhere they please? Or sell any device they decide to make?
For the very same reason that we recognize each other's rights to begin with. Because it is in our mutual self interest to do so.
I could just eat the people around me for dinner, but when I recognize their right to exist, to speak freely, to have property, a whole world of commerce and culture becomes possible. And that benefits me. In fact, my food is actually easier to get.
And so it is with intellectual property. Or should be. Whatever rules we use, they should be promoting our mutual well being.
Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do people who buy fake Rolexes think they are real, or fakes? If you go into a jewellery shop and spend a lot of money on a Rolex but it turns out to be fake, then sure, it's probably fraud. But if you buy one out on the street for 10 bucks, then I hardly think it's fraud. But these things are independent of the physical form of the thing sold; it comes down to the understanding of what is being sold, as in a contrac…
If you know it's a fake, then why does it matter what the label says?
To impress your peers, which is often the same reason you would buy the real item. That is why manufacturers of luxury and designer products try to conflate knockoffs and counterfeits in legislation.
Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#28Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trademark is another form of IP.
Trademark is primarily consumer protection.
That might have been why it was created, but it's not how it's primarily used today, nor do I think it does that good a job combating "customer confusion". (Remember, even without Ubuntu calling their OS "Windows", Dell customers still sent back Ubuntu laptops complaining they thought they were getting Windows.) Just like copyrights and patents were created to encourage innovators to innovate and share with society--the goal was improving society--that original purpose is lost in the primary uses of IP laws today.
Re: Copyright Lawyer: The Public Domain Goes Against Free Market Capitalism
#30Pure free market capitalism would be if I could buy your book the day it's released, make photocopies, and sell them outside the bookstore for cheaper. Pure free market capitalism would let me make a fake Rolex. It would let me reverse-engineer an iPod and sell it with the label "iPod." There are downsides to this, and that's why we have IP laws. But those laws are not free market capitalism; they are restraints on i…
When the pioneer goes out into the wilderness and establishes a farm, doing the hard work of removing stumps and planting a crop, he has added to the value of that land and deserves to have ownership recognized and protected. The freedom of others to wander the wilderness, eating whatever they find is taken away. But it is reasonable to curtail it, because agriculture is very productive compared to the hunter gathere…
> And if we don't want people to invent smart phones, cures for cancer and televisions, we should eliminate patents.
I reject this. Software, which is a component of all of the things you mention, didn't always have patents, and it flourished without them.