Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 1 May 2003 10:03:09 +0100 | From | Jamie Lokier <> | Subject | Re: Why DRM exists [was Re: Flame Linus to a crisp!] |
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David Schwartz wrote: > All of these right conflicts are resolved by property rights. Yes, you can > keep and bear arms on your property, but you can't let a bullet fly onto the > circle K. Yes, you can smoke in your house or someplace under your control, > but I can designate my house smoke free if I want to.
Free market capitalism _appears_ to tend towards a structure where the bulk of property becomes owned by a few owners, and the majority of owners own very little property.
So it's appropriate for rights to be distributed like that too?
For example, suppose you own _all_ the land I can travel to. Then my right to not be shot by you is not protected at all. I do not think that is an appropriate resolution of rights.
> The author's right to profit from his creation is about as absolute a > property right as you can imagine.
For some kinds of profit, I agree. For other kinds of profit (read: coercion over others), I disagree.
And if there are two authors who independently create something similar? The rights do not resolve so long as both authors demand that the other does not profit. The only resolution is when both authors view cooperation as a satisfactory kind of profit.
I truly do not believe I have that "absolute property right", much as I would like it. If I write a program or create a new kind of technical device, I would like to profit from that. But I do not think I would be allowed to, as I would be pursued into oblivion by more powerful entities than I.
But then, I truly believe it is conceptually impossible to create something which has no connection with what has come before. So I would not claim it as absolutely mine anyway, unless I had an agenda to fulfull...
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