IP
The interesting thing about Intellectual Property rights, other than the fact that its a debate that’s beaten to death every few months, is that one cannot really take a stand.
According to this, all the gigantic technology firms out there have pirated their technology from ‘the little guys’. Ironically, some of them go after “illegal” file-sharers for trying to pirate the products they make with their “pirated” technology.
The question is, what is copyrighted and what isn’t ? Thoughts I have in my head, which I have formed after reading this article, do they come under this heading as well ? Or when I read something interesting somewhere, and then go ahead and use it in my article, is that definitely piracy ?
One of the earliest, I believe, I read of yesterday, where a university was sued by a company for having kept its xerox machine with copyrighted works, hence implicitly allowing piracy. Whether the students were using it as pure reference, or indeed, that professors cannot differentiate between original works and that of the students was not even considered.
Which is why I’ve come to believe that Free Software might be the only way to go. And Free Intellectual Sharing is the only way to be. Consider that eventually a company might not allow a cancer-eliminating drug to come out, simply coz others might pirate it. A scientific software might not be freely available for use, so as to ensure that it is not pirated. Progress can be prevented, just to protect one’s “intellectual property”.
How about the VCR and audio tapes ? I am still able to copy those without any problems for ages. Are we going to go after all the mechanisms that we have to replicate ? Science is one long story of people building on others’ discoveries. Giving credit is one thing, this is degenerating to something far worse.
“I won’t share it with you.”
“That was my lollipop !”
“No, that was mine !”
“I saw it first !”
“I reached it first !”
“Mommmmmyyyyyy…”
I can only shudder at where this can leave clones, and the cloning process in the future.
Its all about a point of view in the end, and while I cannot say that file-sharing is legal or not, I will say that people won’t pirate something when it is freely available. Or at minimal cost.
S
