Yes, stealing work without permission is a crime; fraudulently claiming
authorship or invetion is a crime; but copyrights and patents aren't
aimed at those actions: they are aimed specifically at preventing, by
force, the use of information legally obtained. If I invent something,
I will keep the idea under wraps with non-disclosure agreements while
it is being developed, and you bet I'd prosecute anyone who broke his
contract or stole from my safe. But if I freely choose to sell the
thing on the open market where anyone can see how it works, I have no
right to have the government use its guns to prevent those folks from
going into business against me.
> Not having a system of protections for these future oriented people
> would give the lazy and oportunistic the right to benefit from the work
> of others - not a very libertarian concept. Besides, patents expire
> (voila IBM clones) giving others the right to benefit from the
> advancement, but also giving the individual(s) their just rewards.
I agree that "a system" should do that. I just disagree that it should
be government force. Private contracts and private technologies work.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>