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<TITLE>Re: [Mandrakeot] ESR gives up on Fedora</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Simo Sorce wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> No, what I mean is that "Intellectual Property" is not natural law,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> children do not understand ownership of a song, they just sing it if</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> they like. Children do understand perfectly ownership of an apple, just</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> because only one can hold the same apple, and it can be eaten only once.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>It's just a matter of age. Very young children do not understand </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>ownership at all. Older children understand physical ownership, but </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>things like information are too abstract for them.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Nor do we want to base our society on how children behave.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> "Intellectual Property" it is an artificial construct made up by</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> societies to achieve some goal in the belief that these rules are an</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> overall benefit to the society as a whole. For the American society the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> goal should be to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"(from</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> the constitution), the mean is Copyright/Patents.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> You cannot physically posses a piece of code, you can physically own the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> specific instance of the code you have saved on your disk. But the code</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> by itself is abstract, if I copy it from you, you still have your copy</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> and it is intact. So "taking" your code didn't leave you without it.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Property make sense only when taking something from someone leaves him</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> without it.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>If you borrow my bicycle while I'm asleep, I'm still have it when I wake </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>up, but you've undermined by bicycle-rental business. Think of </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>licensing intellectual property as renting a bicycle. Copying my code </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>(or book, or movie) doesn't leave me without it, but it takes away my </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>freedom to do what I want with it, including witholding it from others, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>or charging them for it.</FONT>
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<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> Copyright can be seen as a form of property, as if I have the copyright</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> on something, you don't. But you have to realize that this works at a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> different level. You own the "right to copy" the code, an artifact made</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> by law, you do not technically own the code itself.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Ok. I have a bicycle, I own the right to decide how it's used. Even if </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>you promise to return it later, I can still choose not to let you ride it.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>>> Because that also means that I control what is done with my code.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> You </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> make it sound like all ideas should be in the public domain.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Ideas are technically and by law in the "public domain", as they are</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> abstract and you can't copyright nor patent an ideas.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Code is a different thing, see above.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Finally, can we close this thread on a devel list?</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I am happy to debate around law philosophy elsewhere if you like.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Ok.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-- </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Do not meddle in the internals of kernels, for they are subtle and quick to panic.</FONT>
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