Friday, April 11, 2014

If Intellectual Property Is Neither Intellectual, Nor Property, What Is It?

An interesting discussion on the concept of "intellectual property" by Mike Masnick (from Techdirt.com).

Continuing my ongoing series of posts on "intellectual property," I wanted to discuss the phrase itself. It's become common language to call it intellectual property, but that leads to various problems -- most notably the idea that it's just like regular property. It's not hard to come up with numerous reasons why that's not true, but just the word "property" seems to get people tied up. There are some who refuse to use the term, but it is handy shorthand for talking about the general space.
The main reason why I have trouble with... [read more]