Merry Intellectual Property Day!

Today, April 26, is World Intellectual Property Day according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA). This day, according to the BSA's press release, is "an initiative to educate young people about how intellectual property rights foster innovation, creativity and economic opportunity." The BSA is a leading member of the fight against "intellectual property" "theft."

Intellectual Property is a fiction
This young person says: Ownership of intellectual property does not exist except as a legal status, a legal fiction, if you will. This is a completely different status from ownership of tangible property, which has existed as a moral right since Adam. I'm not apologizing for those who break the law, but theft is by definition taking of another's property. Illegally copying software may be illegal (and thus immoral), but because intellectual property is not property, it is not theft.

Think of it this way: In Exodus, a law was received (from God) that forbade theft. The Mosaic law never mentions intellectual property, whether it be a building design, a tool design, a piece of writing, or a song. Suppose an ancient farmer, Fred made a new hoe, designed to be easier on his back. Stealing this hoe is theft, and is morally wrong. However, another farmer, his neighbor John, can easily make a hoe just like the first without any payment to the first farmer. Is this theft? Not at all. That evening, John makes up a song and sings it to his family. Fred hears the song. He has every right to sing that song all day, every day, for the rest of his life. If someone asked Fred, "that's a nice song, who first sang it?" and he said "I did," he would be lying, but there was no such thing as theft of intellectual property. He isn't depriving John of the use of his song, merely making use of it for himself.

Under modern patent law, Fred can keep John from making a similar hoe with the design he made. John can keep Fred from singing his song by the wonders of copyright law.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)
This legal fiction does have its uses, and I hope discuss those one day. However, the current system is screwed up. And interested groups like the BSA are trying to strengthen "intellectual property rights", and so far they have been suprisingly successful. Until laws like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (PDF) one of the worst-ever copyright laws, you were allowed to use copyrighted works you owned in whatever way you liked.

The DMCA "criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet." (Wikipedia) Under this law, it is illegal to hold down the shift key while you put certain copy-restricted music CDs because that is circumventing copy protection. It is illegal to put a chip in your Xbox to run it like a computer because that is circumventing copy protection. Perfectly legitimate activities - it is legal to rip your CD for personal use, and to use your Xbox as a computer - made illegal by a bad law. Many more bad IP laws abound.

Copyleft and Creative Commons
You don't have to patent your inventions, but what you write is automatically copyrighted in the United States. You can, however, put what you write under copyleft. Copyleft is licensing anyone to use a work in any way, with the caveat that if they make any derivative work from it, they must license that work under the same license. This can be viewed as the opposite of copyright: copyright is used to restrict your right to use something; copyleft is used to prevent your right¹ to use a work from being restricted.

In honor of my opposition to intellectual property and the excesses of government protection, I have licensed this blog (for what it's worth) under the Creative Commons Share-alike license, probably the most popular copyleft license. You are free, according to the license,

• to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to make derivative works
• to make commercial use of the work

as long as you attribute to me and make it clear to others the terms of the license. You may distribute derivative works only under this license.

My copyright on the contents of this blog, like all copyrights, will expire 120 years after my death, unless I release it into the public domain. You have the right to quote parts of this and any blog, and copy it for strictly educational purposes, and do certain other things under the "fair use" doctrine.

Notes
(1) I use the term "right" to mean legal permission; I do not use it in the sense of an inalienable right.

A few notes

Linkage to some quality blogs in the sidebar.

See my xanga for some 419 scambaiting.

XHTML/CSS editing doesn't work well in Word.

Churches with issues

There's a discussion raging about the church - their function, the role of the individual Christian, and pretty much everything. Hopefully someone will point out the couple of issues that lie at the core of the debate, if such issues exist. (I say, unwilling to find them myself).

On the Christian's responsibility: In general, we should be imitators of Paul, even as he was of Christ. Imitating Christ means obeying our Father in everything, and obeying the two meta-commandments, which are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This means doing as the early church: setting up hospitals to minister to the uncaredfor ill and dying, feeding and clothing widows and orphans. (aside: this would do a lot to fix our bad rap for trying to gain political power and impose morality on everyone.) That's the second meta-commandment. The first is even more important, and involves worship, prayer, and meditation upon the Word. But note that the commandment is to love, not to pray, worship, obey, or anything else. All of those are essential, but the greatest deed is to love. Love the Lord your God who saved you from sin.

In the church, we should not forsake the assembly of the saints. This may not necessarily mean "you must go to church." The second commandment does mean that when you go to church or meet with believers elsewhere, you need to talk to them, exhort and encourage and pray with them. Praying for four different church members every day would be an excellent starting practice. Be wary of using "the members of the church don't reach out to me" as an excuse not to start the reaching out.

On seeker services: Evangelism in a meeting of believers is never recorded in Scripture. The assumption is that the attendants of such meetings are already saved. If your friend is lost, don't bring him to a meeting to pray, worship, remember the Lord in communion, or study the Word as it applies to the saints - which should be the content of such meetings. Tell him the good news, and probably do it yourself, in an appropriate manner.

Then again, if, as Gabe noted, a number of Christians he knew were avoiding church, and non-Christians were attending to participate in free sports leagues, why not try to evangelize?

linkage to the discussion:
First post - Dave
Second post - Gabe
Third post - Dave
Fourth post - Hank
Fifth post - Eric
And finally, as one untimely born, myself.

News rants

I woke up in a good mood today. Then I opened the newspaper. No, I didn't even open it; I read the first page.

A 17 year old high school girl who gave her friend (via Instant Messenger) a 65-member hit list she had made, and said she would blow up her school, is being prosecuted for charges of "false reports or threats ofa bomb/harmful device, a 4-year felony, and conspiracy to maliciously use a telecommunications serivices [sic], a 1-year misdemeanor."

The article notes that "police quickly determined the threats were not credible," but "Genesee County Prosecutor David S. Leyton told The Flint Journal that he wants to send a message that such activity won't be tolerated."

So she was charged under a terrorism law. "Law enforcement officials say the law against threatening terrorism, enacted [after September 11, 2001], gives them a vital tool to avert shootings." It also gives prosecutors the tools to gain political capital at the expense of a messed up girl. "It is not a defense to a prosecution under this section that the defendant did not have the intent or capability of committing the act of terrorism," neither of which the girl had. In other words, they want to be able to put a felony on the criminal records of girls like this, when they know she didn't mean it.

But that's ridiculous. State law considers threats to be assault.

"Michigan Law [MCLA 750.81] defines a criminal assault and battery as an attempt or offer to do bodily injury with a present intention and ability to do so. See above. Assault is an attempt or threat, with unlawful force, to inflict bodily injury upon another, accompanied by the apparent present ability to carry out the intent if not deterred by another. A threat coupled with present ability may be considered an assault."
Any person who shall assault another with intent to commit the crime of murder, shall be guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for life or any number of years.
- source

Why couldn't prosecutors use the law against "assault with intent to commit the crime of murder"? Because this girl had no intent or ability to carry out her "plan", so for good reason, she couldn't be prosecuted under assault law. But the prosecutor has an image to keep up, a re-election to win in 3 years, and knee-jerk parental reactions to placate, so he has to prosecute. At least he was nice enough to let her plea down to a single misdemeanor after the story got enough front-page newspaper mentions.

I could kill idiots like that. Note I don't say "that idiot", but "idiots like that." Maybe that caveat will save me from prosecution for a terrorist threat, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $20k fine.

You can encrypt instant messages over all popular messaging services, with encryption so strong that even the NSA probably can't decrypt them, using Gaim and a plugin.

An auction house has cancelled its agreement to sell an estate after finding out what was being auctioned: Ku Klux Klan - related items.

There is an Auschwitz museum. These KKK items should be used in a similar way.

Good news: Three people will be recognized for heroic efforts to save two young people from a burning car, which is cool.

Funny news: A Department of Transportation message sign was hacked yesterday morning to display the message "speed limit 1000 mph go go go." The DOT turned the sign sideways after it was corrected, to keep it from further confusion. The DOT spokesman "apologized for the inappropriate message, adding: "We want people to drive a safe speed on our roads."

keywords that will make me the subject of federal interest: Hit list, bomb, felony, terrorism, September 11, 2001, Auschwitz, high school girl, encryption, assault, NSA, Ku Klux Klan.

personal stuff

Again, I'll direct you to my xanga site for some cool personal news.