[pp.int.general] ACTA declaration

[Mikko Särelä]

On Fri, 9 Jul 2010, Boris Turovskiy wrote:
> Hi,
> > I disagree. It is much better to call copyrights and patents a
> > mercantilist monopoly (which it is). It gives you the choice of the battle
> > field rather than your opponent.
> >    
> yeah, you can call anything a "mercantilist monopoly" and with that 
> appeal to left-extreme motherfuckers.
> 
> I thought we were against that type of senseless categorizing.

Sorry pal, but copyrights and patents _are_ a mercantilist policy. They 
were originated by the same people who thought a monopoly on overseas 
trade (with India etc.) was a good idea.

And they are a monopoly granted by the state. At least in Finland, if you 
go and read the introduction text book in university economics, copyrights 
are used as an example of a government granted monopoly. Every information 
economics text book speaks of copyrights as such. 

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