Blagnet.net

IP absurdity

It is not proof of an idea’s incorrectness that it results in impractical absurdities that go against common sense, but it’s a good indication. Intellectual property laws fit the bill nicely. Just because incompetent and corrupt governments give patents to undeserving parties and protect the most ridiculous, non-proprietal “innovations” and “inventions,” it doesn’t mean some form of legal protection of ideas is wrong. But it’s a strong indictment of the whole idea of using monopolistic-governmental force to…well, to do anything. Vox Day illustrates the fundamental absurdity of imaginary property protection by State fiat—or, rather, he lets the proponents and recipients of such protection illustrate it for him. Listen to what Zahi Hawass, the famed chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, obtained from his government:

Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced. … “The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies,” he said. “If the law is passed then it will be applied in all countries of the world so that we can protect our interests,” Hawass said.

Vox Day added some good commentary: “What a brilliant idea! After all, if copyright can be extended from the life of the creator to 70 years after the life of the creator, there’s no logical reason not to extend it to 10,000 years after the life of the creator. …That overwhelming majority of [anti-IP] college students are not amoral, they’re merely recognizing the undeniable fact that if you had one apple before and you’ve still got one apple now even though I am happily crunching away something that is a perfect replica of your apple, then no one has taken anything away from you. No theft has taken place. But using the government to force me to pay you for the apple you still possess is theft.”

Maybe it’s evidence of how State-indoctrinated our minds are that I still have a hard time admitting that no one possesses the right to own or control the physical manifestation of their ideas, but I’m being swayed, by people like Vox Day and Stephan Kinsella.