Knowledge Is A Universal Natural Resource - Locking It Up Hurts Everyone

[IainB]

The case for knowledge being freely available and without ownership: Knowledge Is A Universal Natural Resource -- And Locking It Up Hurts Everyone

[rjbull]

Knowledge Is A Universal Natural Resource -- And Locking It Up Hurts Everyone

Serious case of misreading the original.  I thought it said
Knowledge Is A Universal Natural Resource -- And Looking It Up Hurts Everyone
What a difference one letter makes...

[cranioscopical]

Knowledge Is A Universal Natural Resource -- And Locking It Up Hurts Everyone

Serious case of misreading the original.  I thought it said
Knowledge Is A Universal Natural Resource -- And Looking It Up Hurts Everyone
What a difference one letter makes...

Good paint!

[mahesh2k]

Knowledge Is A Universal Natural Resource -- And Looking It Up Hurts Everyone

[kyrathaba]

What a difference one letter makes...

Yep, know what you men.

[Renegade]

That was an excellent article.

I LOVED this:

Thomas Jefferson once famously wrote:

Full quote

If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.

Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.

The rest of the article was equally wonderful.

My position on copyright, IP, and patents has shifted rather radically as of late. The utter abuse of them has led me now to the point where I wonder if we would not be better off simply by abolishing them altogether.

Here is a fun fact...

20% of your body -- of YOU -- is OWNED thanks to patents on humans.

I find that repulsive. That is SLAVERY. Owning people is flat out SLAVERY. The patent system that has allowed this is simply broken beyond repair.

Portions of mathematics -- fundamental equations -- have been patented... Again. The patent system is broken beyond repair.

These are fundamental travesties. They are not forgivable. These are the blackest of sins. They are the things of nightmares. And they are very, very real now.

[Renegade]

Ok, here's more total insanity...

Universal had a song pulled from YouTube when they did not own the copyright, and the people that put the song up there in the first place owned the copyright...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120127/09114517563/universal-music-claims-copyright-over-song-that-it-didnt-license-just-because-one-its-artists-rapped-to-it-leaked-track.shtml

You just cannot make this stuff up...

That it happened at all is simply inexcusable. What does this stuff mean with ACTA already signed? What complete destruction now looms over the Internet?

[IainB]

Yes, it is a thought-provoking article.
The corporate lobbyists in Washington would seem to have deliberately created a state of irrationality/insanity that supports their commercial objectives, and they have used the US lawmakers as tools to continue/prolong that state - in the hopes of making it permanent. The Emperor will have nice new clothes wherever you look.

I normally have a high regard for the US, but, if Americans continue to tolerate or buy into all this nonsense, then they will probably richly deserve the outcomes - including the loss of their freedoms/Constitution and the loss of respect of other nations.

But there may be hope for Reason yet:

Speaking of Elsevier (which we were): 1000 scientists and counting boycott Elsevier journal publishing

[kyrathaba]

Universal had a song pulled from YouTube when they did not own the copyright, and the people that put the song up there in the first place owned the copyright...

http://www.techdirt.com/a...-to-it-leaked-track.shtml

You just cannot make this stuff up...

That it happened at all is simply inexcusable.

+1. The only thing preventing a revolt/revolution at this point is the ignorance of the unwashed masses, and the fact that there are so many bleeding-heart liberals endorsing such ridiculous behavior.

[Renegade]

+1. The only thing preventing a revolt/revolution at this point is the ignorance of the unwashed masses, and the fact that there are so many bleeding-heart liberals endorsing such ridiculous behavior.

+1

Some of my American friends really and truly buy into all of this. They constantly support more legislation and more laws that restrict freedom. They advocate force (yes - violence) against people and justify it through some sort of twisted logic. Flat out tyranny of the majority. Ghettoization of people. It's outright scary.

I mean that quite literally -- I am really and truly scared. Their ideas and ways of thinking are the kind that will lead us directly into Hell on Earth.

History has plenty of examples. The only difference is that now there's a bit more sophistication. It's a bit more clever. It seems some have learned lessons from history that would have been better left alone.

[Stoic Joker]

It seems some have learned lessons from history that would have been better left alone.

I've often felt that way. While it's been said that those that don't study history are doomed to repeat it (by popular pontiffs). It seems more the case that half fixate on the wrong parts with "righteous" indignation ... And the other half look at the ruthless dictators in history thinking Okay, good plan...but here's what they did wrong.

The mistakes just keep get improved on...not learned from.

[mahesh2k]

20% of your body -- of YOU -- is OWNED thanks to patents on humans.

This reminds me of new movie - "In Time". It's crappy movie but pretty much touch on all these points of - capitalism, resource hogging and crime.

[Renegade]

It seems some have learned lessons from history that would have been better left alone.

I've often felt that way. While it's been said that those that don't study history are doomed to repeat it (by popular pontiffs). It seems more the case that half fixate on the wrong parts with "righteous" indignation ... And the other half look at the ruthless dictators in history thinking Okay, good plan...but here's what they did wrong.

The mistakes just keep get improved on...not learned from.

Thanks for phrasing that much better!

I tend to muddle things sometimes. It's great when someone like you can clarify my blatherings much better.

[Renegade]

20% of your body -- of YOU -- is OWNED thanks to patents on humans.

This reminds me of new movie - "In Time". It's crappy movie but pretty much touch on all these points of - capitalism, resource hogging and crime.

Oooo! That looks pretty good. Just checked out the trailer.

I like these kinds of metaphorical movies about dystopian futures. Sometimes they turn out to be predictions, which sucks, but still... I do like a good horror flick!

[Deozaan]

There's a book by Michael Crichton called Next that deals with sequences of the human genome being patented. It's not my favorite Crichton novel, but it was pretty good.