[LINK] Downer on FTA copyright changes

[Danny Yee]

Deus Ex Machina wrote:
> when you buy property there is no temporal limitation on that ownership
> why should there be any with intelectual property?
 
Property and copyrights/IP are _completely_ different animals.
One is a fundamental feature of human life, which exists in all known
societies and has existed as far back as we have records.  The other
is a quite recent invention, limited to particular societies and
given substance only by enabling laws.

The distinction exists in law as well.  Despite the term "intellectual
property", no legal system that I know of actually treats IP as
property; the laws involved are different in origin, construction,
and operation.

For a libertarian perspective, consider this: To sustain property,
you don't need to control people's private behaviour; to sustain
copyrights, you need to be able to monitor and control their private
actions.  It's one thing to have sanctions against my taking a physical
good away from someone else; it's something completely different to
try to prevent me putting a video in a VCR and pressing record.

Danny.
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