jberryhill said:
But, hey, who am I to judge. Please post a list of the things you own, so that I can decide which ones I want to take.
There's an important difference between intellectual property and physical property. If you take my bicycle, it's gone, and I can no longer use it.
If you "take" the song I composed, you can sing it, but your "theft" does not harm my ability to continue to sing and enjoy the song myself.
Royalties complicate the situation; people are entitled to a fair compensation for their work.
Yet, as long as there are sufficient incentives to innovate and create, releasing patents and copyrights into the public domain is a good idea, for society as a whole. Pfizer and Sony Music have a different agenda.
Intellectual property is great. What I dislike, is the creeping expansionism: some rights holders, usually those who already have a lot, keep asking for more.
Do I have a "right" to exclude you from my living room?
Does Sony Music have a right to restrict my usage of "their" works beyond what is stipulated in the law? No, they don't.
Yet, they'll simply change the law, and create that right. Which is probably fine, in a democracy. I guess I'm just being grumpy because I don't seem to have the same resources to change the law to my favor
back to work...