Re: virus: Intellectual property

Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 16:07:15 -0500

Robin Faichney wrote:
>
> Wade writes
> >>Umm, OK, but then that applies to absolutely all property rights,
> >>not just the intellectual sort, doesn't it? "Property is theft!"
> >>-- Proudhon
> >
> >Yes. That is where I am starting. I have no answers here. And I've
> >received the filthy lucre for intellectual property as well. It's always
> >seemed a cultural right to me, not a natural one. Laws.
>
> Fair enough. Meanwhile, I'll be as happy to be paid for a day's
> thinking and writing, as a day's programming, or a day's wood
> chopping.
>

Contrast these two statements about our inalienable rights:

"Life, liberty, and property"

--John Locke

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

-- The U.S. Declaration of Independence

For some reason, more property is how we feel better. If there were no
property rights, there would be no happiness. (At least according to the
U.S. Declaration of Independence).

Keith