[pp.int.general] International day of Sharing - September 12

[Reinier Bakels]

Frankly, you must acknowledge that the "natural law" theory still has its supporters. The nature op copyright/authors right is one of these questions lawyers will never agree on. Unlike in other sciences, lawyers are satisfied by having questions that remain unanswered forever.
Having said that, some comments:
1. "Natural law" is generally perceived by lawyers as a very weak proposition from a methodological perspective. It means: it is naturally so - don't ask any further questions - or in less polite terms: shut up!
2. After the property concept was firmly established in the late 18th century during the French revolution as a "droit inviolable et sacré" (yes, sacré means holy!), dishonest lobbyists tried to piggyback by promoting the view that intellectual property was something similar. Scholars soon acknowledged that this was incorrect. If you want to cite an authoritative source: the great German scholar Joseph Kohler (1849-1919) proposed "immaterial goods rights" (Immaterialgüterrechte in German) instead of "intellectual property".
3. The really big threat is is that "intellectual property" is no longer perceived as a (perhaps incorrect) generic term, but as an object of rights per se. Most lawyers agree that "intellectual property" is a "closed system", an exception to the rule of information freedom, limited to copyright, patents, trademark law and a few other things all *explicitly* codified in law. Some lawyers promote "unwritten" intellectual property in addition to that, but that is very controversial. Examoples include goodwill, slavish imitation, domain names. Oddly enough, some new types of rights are explicitly qualified as "sui gereneris" (of its own kind) instead of intellectual property, which allows them to escape from some general rules on "IP" (notably most favoured nation treatment). 

Fortunately, the US Constitution explicitly adopts a utilitarian reason for copyright and patents. In EU, we have constitutional provisions like "intellectual property shall be protected" - but afaik the correct interpretation is that "IP" rights shall be protected as far as recognised: e.g. the government can not withdraw a patent withou a statutory reason and due process.
reiner
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joonas Mäkinen 
  To: Pirate Parties International -- General Talk 
  Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:59 AM
  Subject: Re: [pp.int.general] International day of Sharing - September 12


  Sadly, though, many people and especially people working in the business take it that they already know what they are talking about. No matter how good you are at history, it doesn't matter if people do not listen to you and believe you.

  Fortunately it seems that the copyright holders are fighting against this so hard that people actually start seeing through it. Also we have seen once in a while some prominent members of the holders to come out and criticise their own ways. They'll see... one day... 


  2009/6/29 Mikko Särelä <msarela at cc.hut.fi>

    On Sun, 28 Jun 2009, Richard Stallman wrote:
    >     > currently we have a legislatory nightmare where copyright, patent
    >     > rights or related intellectual property rights can never be
    >     > weakened, only strengthened. What we need to do is break that
    >     > hegemony.
    >
    > To succeed in reducing copyright power, we need to teach people it is a
    > mistake to refer to copyright as "intellectual property."  See
    > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html. That term implies that
    > copyright is a natural right that must never be interfered with.


    You are quite right. It is interesting to see people's reactions when they
    realize that copyright is a leftover government granted monopoly from the
    mercantilist times.

    --
    Mikko Särelä
    "It is through exchange that difference becomes a blessing, not a
    curse", Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain




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  -- 
  Joonas "JoonasD6" Mäkinen
  Varapuheenjohtaja, viceordförande
  Piraattinuoret - Piratungdom

  Department of Mathematics and Statistics
  Faculty of Science
  University of Helsinki

  gsm +358 40 700 5190



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