Here's my poisition in brief:
IP is a artifact of the printing press, and the publishers that controled
them. It's only purpose was to protect the PUBLISHERS rights and
properties, not the artists. The moral and legal basis of these laws were
constructed around the fact that publishing works took considderable time
and effort, and that publishers who invest that effort should be the sole
entities to be rewarded for investing in the book. Now that the
distribution of information has reached a level where the individual
creators do not necessarily need a publisher to reach their audience, and
that the type of information that suceeds financially in this new
electronic medium is based on repeating, context aware information, the
standards and morals that surround IP will become increasingly irrelivant,
until IP is relegated to the Backup Tapes of history, where it belongs.
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taylor@hotwired.com