[LINK] Downer on FTA copyright changes

[Jim Birch]

Deus Ex Machina wrote:

>when you buy property there is no temporal limitation on that ownership
>why should there be any with intelectual property?
>  
>
I'm happy to support artists/creators, but "rights" that go on for crazy 
lengths of time has nothing to do with this.  Was the creator of Mickey 
Mouse driven in the slightest by the thought of financial gain for some 
unknown person 100 years down the track?  Of course not.  These kind of 
"rights" are anti-creative among numerous other negative effects.

But the creation of unique works of art is a special case anyway.  Most 
of the real action in "intellectual property" is little more than a land 
grab.  Software patents are a case in point about 99.9% of the time.  
They could be called "intellectual property" but they could equally be 
called the larceny of the right of independent discovery.  And, they 
produce a crazy distorted ("Mickey Mouse") world.  The attempt to reward 
creativity gets turned on it's head and "intellectual property" becomes 
a means of fortifying privileged positions.

-- 
Jim Birch

jbirch at multinode.com.au
t: 04 1243 1243
--
 The worm thinks it strange and foolish that man does not eat his books.
--Rbindranath Tagore