Reply to post: Re: Property is theft

Re: Property is theft

@Doctor Syntax: If I make or grow something by my own efforts you should be entitled to it for free because somehow I've stolen it from you?"

No form of property is absolute. It always confers _limited_ legal monopoly rights and can come with reciprocal social obligations. This is because the law which enforces legitimate property rights is a balance of public interest exercised at cost to the public through the expense of the taxpayer funded legislature and court systems. There used to be only one informed side to this discussion concerning copyright: i.e. your side, because that's the only side the man who bought ink by the barrel considered fit to print. That's no longer the case.

There is a wider public interest in the creation of new intellectual property. But no-one is incentivised to create original new work based on speculation of what they might earn 20 or more years after it's published. Those so engaged have better incentive if they are not going to be contested by every stale idea or meme from the past which someone else may have thought of generations before and which new creative work can't avoid accidentally infringing upon, or legitimate reference to. The public benefits from new copyright being established to the extent outdated copyright enters the public domain, but not when copyright durations are extended beyond their original legitimate purpose by one sided terms of discussion and political lobbying.

If you ever purchase a plot of land, you'll find your rights are also limited. You probably won't be allowed to turn a domestic dwelling into an industrial unit by planning restrictions. You'll have to pay taxes to the local authority. You won't be able to stop aircraft overflying, or miners from undermining. Your house and land ownership is defended by the public purse, to the extent it's in the public interest that you enjoy your ownership for the purpose for which the wider public intended, through planning and other environmental regulations and the local taxation due.