September 28, 2002

"intellectual property" vs "granted monopoly"

Thought for consideration : We should change usage from "intellectual property" to "granted monopoly".

I'm coming to believe that the term intellectual property is more and more leading to an inability to think about the issue. Copying isn't theft. But what is it? In the case of copyright, it's a violation of the business model of a granted monopoly. This violation may be trivial, or may indeed threaten the business model. But talking of it in terms of property is threatening to crowd out anything else.

By Seth Finkelstein | posted in copyblight , infothought | on September 28, 2002 11:55 PM (Infothought permalink)

Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)

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