[pp.int.general] purpose of manifesto

Richard M Stallman rms at gnu.org
Wed Jan 28 15:45:58 CET 2009


    I am afraid that the reality is that the term "intellectual property" is so 
    widely used that attempts to avoid it make one's language very cumbersome 
    and artificial.

"Intellectual property" is trivial to avoid,
once you avoid the mistakes in thinking that it embodies.

I often talk about copyright law, I often talk about patent law,
and I occasionally talk about trademark law.
Knowing how different they are, I never seek to generalize about more
than one of them, so I have no occasion to say "intellectual property",
and no wish for any other term for the same overgeneralization.
I avoid the term "intellectual property" effortlessly, and you
can too.

What does take work is explaining the harm in the term when others use
it.  Explaining this way of thinking to others is what takes work,
like explaining any other idea.  But this is necessary in order to
reduce the harm that the term does.



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