patents in a free society (Re: Brother can you help a fiber?)

[Shawn K. Quinn]

On Fri, Nov 8, 2013, at 07:38 PM, Bill Stewart wrote:
> Some of us strongly believe in intellectual property.  Some of us 
> believe that initiating force to defend "imaginary property" that's 
> really a euphemism for a government-granted monopoly is both 
> dishonest and anathema.

I agree with the concepts of copyrights, patents (for physical
inventions only), trademarks, trade dress, and trade secrets.

I disagree completely with the use of the term "intellectual property"
because the laws governing copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade dress,
and trade secrets are not property laws. Not only is the term
"intellectual property" deceptive, misleading, and ambiguous, the people
who brought it to us are the same ones who would love to shut down
BitTorrent and similar information sharing technologies.

-- 
  Shawn K. Quinn
  skquinn at rushpost.com