[LINK] Can ideas be stolen?

[Tom Koltai]

I like Davids take on this.

I have been looking at P2P for some time and am particularly enamoured
of TVU Player although it is difficult to use in Australia because of
the Telstra DSL backhaul charging.

However , I would take Davids comments one step further, when does the
sharing of over 120 million files via P2P on a global basis stop being a
crime - I think the answer to that is when it is registered as a Global
Heritage item. 

Dont scoff guys and gals, any library resource that allows me to
download a 104 year old movie, or the source code to a PD (GPL) program
that was on Simtel in the early nineties but is no longer, can only be
considered a major resource.

Now - disregarding large business and Hollywood, all we need to do is
figure out how to pay for the royalty to prevent infringement of
copyright issues. The music industry worked it out in the nineties, why
cant the software and movie industries join in.

I can feel some lobbying enzymes being activated.


Tom Koltai




-----Original Message-----
From: link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au
[mailto:link-bounces at mailman1.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of David Boxall
Sent: Wednesday, 22 October 2008 12:16 PM
To: Link
Subject: [LINK] Can ideas be stolen?

At first, this comment (from the first article) seemed somewhat valid to
me:
>  unlike much of what might be stolen in a burglary, you can't replace 
> stolen ideas
Then I asked myself: can an idea really be stolen?

Beyond that; after a while, doesn't a successful idea become part of our

culture?  For how long can an idea be rightly said to belong to its 
originator?

My conclusion is that the excesses of "Intellectual Property" succeed in

negating any legitimacy the comment in question might have had.

-- 
David Boxall