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Timothy B. Lee writes about how and why we need to distinguish between property rights and copyright, though some people equate them today. Clear and concise, this is a quick but useful read
The copyright system is currently undergoing rapid changes as technology undermines old business models and enforcement regimes. Some aspects of copyright law are widely ignored and evaded, and efforts to strictly enforce the law have sparked widespread outrage. If we want to take the property rights analogy seriously, it doesn't make sense to compare today's chaotic copyright regime to the stable, orderly, and universally accepted property rights system we have today
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at 07:29 on March 6th, 2008
biverson, obviously there is a major dissonance between copyright law and societal practice. Laws are in place to protect the construct of society and the safety (both physical and economic) of individuals; the current state of affairs brings these two demands of the law into conflict - the construct of society is to share what you have for free while the protection of economic rights prevents that. My guess is that the situation will figure itself out over time and new economic models develop.