[pp.int.general] where is the manifesto?

[Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)]

Viewing or treating "intellectual property" as property in any sense is
basically hogwash. That was a rhetorical trick used by the printing
lobby in 1708 to have the copyright monopoly re-enacted by British
Parliament after its cessation in 1695. Casting it as property would
make the monopoly be written into the stronger common law, rather than
statute law.

Copyright is a government-sanctioned private monopoly on duplication and
public performance of certain creative works. Nothing more, nothing less.

Let's take that again: Copyright is a monopoly.

Monopolies can be created or abolished at any time by any government,
and copyrights and patents are the only two surviving monopolies since
feudal times, when monopolies were generally considered a good idea.

(Copyright was originally created on May 4, 1577 by Queen Mary I in
order to persecute political dissidents, which in that time and age
meant protestants.)