I have recently written on the misuse of patents (to protect the genetic modification of plants), but I become more and more troubled by excesses relating to the principle of copyright.
I personally spent some years dealing with problems of intellectual property, which includes patents, copyright and know-how, and there are serious problems raised by the question of how it should be protected.
Patents are one answer to the question of how one rewards inventors, and, in my life-time, I have come across the Soviet alternative, which was to reward the inventor directly, while making his or her discovery available to other possible researchers. Patents give a limited period of protection during which the inventor can benefit from the exploitation of the invention, but is subject to many abuses, such as those imposed by corporations which trick inventors into giving up their protection for illusory benefits. The whole system is based on the idea of the state of the art, which means that any advance is available to others who may be able to take it further.
Copyright is the protection of any written or performed work, and is justified. However, provided that we acknowledge the source, we are normally allowed to quote (and even copy) works in the course of commenting on what is said or shown, but the proper limits to this are difficult to define.
Happily, many publishers (including Axis of Logic) make it clear that they have no objection to such copying, provided that full acknowledgement is made of the source of the item in question. This has the advantage of leading the reader or viewer to go back to the original source, and perhaps to follow regularly or more often this source. In its turn this gives us a broader vision of what is on offer, and can be most useful to any open-minded person who is genuinely seeking as much information as possible on any subject.
On the other hand, I shall never forget the historical tragedy of piracy of his works (especially in the USA) which robbed Charles Dickens of income which was due to him for books which he had written. Many news agencies are now worried by the growth of plagiarism whereby their efforts and expenses in gathering news are used without acknowledgement, thereby leaving the agencies with all the expenses, and the thieves all the benefits.
A balance has to be found, but it will not come while rules protecting intellectual property are used to prevent progress in every field to gain enormous profits.
© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!
