We have met the enemy, and he is us

The first time I remember hearing about the concept of "intellectual property" was in the early eighties. The Chinese, rushing towards capitalism, were cranking out bogus pirated knockoffs of everything from Gucci bags, to Ray-Bans, to fake Rolex watches, etc. Intellectual property and copyright don't seem to be a part of the Asian culture, and I often thought that it would be next to impossible to get them to realize that they were stealing by reproducing goods and software without licenses.

But now, the very concept of intellectual property and copyright are under assault here in the first world by the free culture and copyleft movement. And we are all going to lose, because if they win, there are not going to be any motives to create something worthwhile, other than the kicks of putting your home video on youtube, and being a star for fifteen seconds.

People are lobbying to change copyright laws. Some say that one year is long enough for a copyright. Some advocate that a copyright should expire when the author dies. This is absurd. My daughter will inherit whatever royalty money I have in the bank when I die, but why shouldn't she be entitled to future income?. If I had created a successful factory, for example, wouldn't she be entitled to enjoy the profits from that after I'm gone? If copyrights expire when a person dies, then why should anyone ever inherit anything? You could make the same lame argument: the inheritors did nothing to create the income, therefore it should be made public. It's bad craziness.

And it's all a rationalization to get things for free. I like free stuff too, but I don't live in a utopia. I don't get free gas, and the groceries aren't free. I've never gotten a free lunch in a Chinese restaurant. I don't expect to.

But getting back to my point in this post, I find it ironic that the problem of getting people to understand the concept of intellectual property has shifted back to the part of the world that invented it.