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Old 03-16-2007, 10:51 PM
zyqwert zyqwert is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 81
Default Re: Debate discussion: intellectual property in an AC land

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if people aren't compensated for incurring 'discovery' costs then what incentive do they have to properly invest their time into discovering new ideas.

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The claims about what inventors deserve reminds me of socialist ideas about how much life's essentials -- food, medicine, housing -- should cost. It's all well and good, but what do you do when supply and demand disagrees with you? Then you curse the hoarders, speculators, pirates, and thieves.

Lots of IP today exists in digital form and can be reproduced for nothing. When copying costs something, enforcement can make unfavorable pot odds for copycats. With no ante to redistribute, enforcement is really impossible. The IP owners are trying to solve their divide by zero problem with infinite (draconian) enforcement, with serious, expensive consequences for society -- not just the pirates.

If you believe creators got to get paid, can you offer a mechanism where that is possible? How much damage are the creators allowed to do to innocent people in their quest to get paid?

I suggest it is better to recognize the limits of economic laws, and protect our other rights instead of sacrificing them in a war for IP rights for digital media.
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