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World Intellectual Property Day

Dotnaught writes "The Business Software Alliance wants everyone to know that today is World Intellectual Property Day, 'an initiative to educate young people about how intellectual property rights foster innovation, creativity and economic opportunity.' To mark the occasion, CopyNight, a monthly gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law, is hosting a get-together tonight in various cities throughout the U.S."

32 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. World Intellectual Property Day by nebaz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmmm....
    WIPD (whipped).

    Sounds about right.

    Not even subtle.

    Oh well.

    --
    Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
    1. Re:World Intellectual Property Day by cookie_cutter · · Score: 4, Funny

      and it's from the BS alliance ...

  2. Update!! by peculiarmethod · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was just recently reported that 6 of those cities events were cancelled by an injunction filed by national porn chain, Copy Night.

    --
    ** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
  3. Examples? by Chemisor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, who wants to be the first to give us a list of all those wonderful inventions that would have never been invented if it wasn't for the copyright law?

    1. Re:Examples? by Mr+Ambersand · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'll take a stab at this...
      GCC
      BASH
      GNU/HURD
      Linux
      Minix

      Those are a few of the things which would not have been invented had it not been for copyright law and the restrictions surrounding the use and distribution of UNIX.

      --
      "Your admirers in the street
      Got to hoot and stamp their feet
      in the heat from your physique" -King Crimson
    2. Re:Examples? by McGiraf · · Score: 3, Funny

      SCO Unix sagas ....

    3. Re:Examples? by Mr+Ambersand · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Re: minix
      I deliberately chose that example not because it's Free Software but it was still created in response to the restricted nature of the UNIX source code.

      Andy needed something to base his class on, copyright law kept him from being able to use UNIX, so he wrote Minix. The license he distributed it under (which was a result of the needs of his publisher, if I remember right) is neither here nor there to the point I was making.

      --
      "Your admirers in the street
      Got to hoot and stamp their feet
      in the heat from your physique" -King Crimson
    4. Re:Examples? by MushMouth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I am a fan of IP as well. that last line of your post I take issue with. Every day patents expire, even software patents, however, here in the US copyrights have not expired in years, and it is quite likely no copyrights ever will.

    5. Re:Examples? by Mr+Ambersand · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'd be surprised if he did beg to differ. Without copyright law, it would not have been necessary to re-create Unix and the Unix infrastruction (including the C compiler).

      --
      "Your admirers in the street
      Got to hoot and stamp their feet
      in the heat from your physique" -King Crimson
    6. Re:Examples? by muonman · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think you have just given the World's Best Reason for eliminating copyright.

      --
      Anything NOT worth doing is NOT worth doing well...
  4. Cool! by Locke2005 · · Score: 4, Funny

    CopyNight, a monthly gathering of people interested in restoring balance in copyright law, is hosting a get-together tonight in various cities throughout the U.S.
    Cool! Does that get-together include a CD/DVD swap session?

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  5. These guys are getting worse by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 4, Interesting

    has anyone here seen the online ads where they ask if you want to get back your old employer by reporting them to the BSA?

    1. Re:These guys are getting worse by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've seen the link but can't find it right now. Here's an old article on it.

  6. Copyright is outdated by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Copyright was intended as a way of protecting the rights of a person to their works. That is fine for something like a book etc.

    Software, particularly OSS, is very different. Much of the value in software is derived from all the testing etc that is done to prove the software and flush out the bugs. I have heard of this being compared to the "stone soup" story. Throw out any (sometimes crappy) software and let people give you feedback. Copyright only protects the interests of the authors - not of those who do all the testing etc. Often the value added by the testers etc is many times the value added by the original authors.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:Copyright is outdated by Dav3K · · Score: 3, Insightful

      and as such Copywrite WAS fine, so long as the author was alive. Why the hell Disney needs copywrite on Mickey Mouse 70+ years after he is dead is beyond me.

      It's no longer fine for things like a book, etc. The whole system has been perverted by corporate interests and needs an overhaul.

  7. BSA ? by Rodness · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The BSA.... aren't they the ones that terrorize small businesses and threaten to audit their software licenses? (And without a glimmer of a search warrant, either.)

    1. Re:BSA ? by rbochan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My chiropractor found out about the BSA the hard way.
      He had 2... count 'em 2, machines in his office, both running Win2k, Microsoft Office, and some accounting and scheduling software. He got a nice little letter from the BSA saying they wanted to do an audit.
      He had no idea where his license info was, it's just him and his wife running a 2-exam-room office and he called me in a panic. I had told him about the Ernie Ball Case previously - he was all sorts of freaked out. Short of shelling out hundreds of dollars for new licenses, he was screwed. Granted, Ernie Ball is a larger company that might be able to suck it up, but it could mean financial ruin for a husband & wife operation.
      He's now happily running Debian and OpenOffice on both machines. He had been planning on buying an updated version of his accounting/scheduling software regardless, and we found that it runs perfectly under wine.
      He won't be hearing from the BSA again any time soon.

      --
      ...Rob
      The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
  8. Celibrate by 9mm+Censor · · Score: 4, Funny

    I Celibrated by downloading some music and a couple movies.

    *Cheers*

  9. Software Freedom Day by HenrikOxUK · · Score: 4, Funny

    Amazing! This is almost exactly the opposite of Software Freedom Day!

    1. Re:Software Freedom Day by uberdave · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, hey! Any excuse to party, you know.

  10. CopyNight by bailster · · Score: 5, Funny

    Strange, I thought "CopyNight" referred to the legendary obscene things people do on the Xerox after returning drunk from the office Xmas party...

    --
    ...
  11. I celebrated by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    By signing up with allofmp3.com. Wish I had done it sooner, it's absolutely fantastic.

    --
    Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  12. HEY, WAIT! by lottameez · · Score: 5, Funny

    World Intellectual Property Day Was My Idea!

    --
    Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
  13. Yay! by syousef · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's celebrate!

    There's so much to celebrate.

    Laws that allow others to lock their ideas away so no one can use them.

    Laws that allow organised price fixing.

    Laws that allow people to own ideas that should belong to everyone. Everything down to your own DNA has some form of IP on it.

    Rejoice world.

    Gimme a break!

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  14. But of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We already have a World Cancer Day and a World AIDS day, why shouldn't we have a World Intellectual Property Day too? I'd like to give my support to all the victims of Intellectual Property and I'm sure a lot of other people would too.

  15. Fish by junkmail · · Score: 3, Funny

    Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. License a man to fish using your technology and you eat for the rest of his life.

  16. Classic.. by __int64 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "We must continue our shared public-private efforts to deter piracy and promote intellectual property rights in every corner of the globe. Our children's ability to learn, create and innovate must be protected now and in the decades ahead."

    A classic maneuver; stating two unrelated topics in the same paragraph deceiving lay readers into drawing nonexistent conclusions between them. This is especially prevalent with statistics, where correlations between two data sets are often shown (which do exist), but where any actual connection between the two is purely happenstance. For example: "After using product X for 2 weeks Rob's weight dropped 25 pounds." At first glance Rob's use of product X and his weight seem to be related, but their not. The real reason for his weight drop was he stopped having his hourly burrito during that time period.

    - Piracy and children have nothing in common, and this man's an asshole for even implying such a connection exists.

  17. Re:Economic opportunity maybe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of course the writer bloody would, they are writing for the love of it, otherwise they would get a job counting beans or something.

    Why is it so hard for captialist pig dogs to grasp the simple concept that money != motivation, the accumulation of wealth is not the purpose of life.

    Writers write as they have a story they want to share with others.

    Companies would have to do research, or they wouldn't have anything to sell to keep them going. or do you think that when this happens now they should be able to make money by making up false legal accusations, ala SCO ?

    Creativity has bugger all to do with money.

  18. Did you catch the text at the bottom? by mikeophile · · Score: 4, Interesting

    P.S.: apologies for the very US-centric map which makes Toronto appear not to be on dry land - I'd welcome pointers to any usable (public domain or Creative Commons) maps that include Canada. - David

    What a surprise, they don't want to pay for intellectual property either.

  19. GNU/Hurd by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny
    There is no stable release (but it is still under rapid development).

    Interesting. Please share your definition of "rapid" with the rest of us.

  20. A Bitter Protest Against Copyrights by argoff · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well I for one intend to celebrate by reposting this ....

    A Bitter Protest Against Copyrights

    If they said there was no incentive to do good things unless the government could choose your religion ... or they said there is no incentive to grow food, unless farmers could rip up your garden ... most people would see these as the awful values that they are. But if they say that there is no incentive to make beneficial or creative works without the power to restrict what people copy (copyrights), then all too many people just take it on faith. They don't even question it, as if incentive makes rights, as if society would fall apart without them. But just as much of the Renaissance happened without copyrights so should the information age.

    Calling copyrights "intellectual property" is intellectually dishonest. The moral and historical foundation of property derives from mutual respect and the fact that not everybody can posses something at the same time. The foundation of copyrights derives from kings who granted publishers monopolies in return for not publishing bad things about the monarchy. Copyrights are about control, censorship, and not a free market property. In fact, they cheapen property rights by treating things that have natural limits in supply such as food, shelter, and medicine like information that does not.

    Worse, is how people who copy are slandered with names such as "thief" and "pirate", as if copying was akin to boarding a ship and murdering people. They are even accused of stealing food out of the mouths of starving artists. Yet these verbal assaults hide a cold and calculated lie, the one that says "copyrights benefit creative people". The truth is that for every artist or writer that has made it "big", there are unmentioned thousands whom copyrights haven't helped a bit, hindered, or even destroyed. Some are even barred or sued from sharing their own creations in public, while others die with the world never truly knowing their artistic genius as the mass media drowns them out. Most creators are far better off sharing and distributing their creations freely to make a reputation for themselves. Copyrights not only cause them to be drowned out in a sea of hype, but do so deceptively.

    However, these aren't the only problems related to copyrights. They are just a sample of many that are constantly blown off, glossed over, or ignored. Like the failures of Hollywood culture, the failures of big media to offer quality material, the failures of the market to offer competitively priced books for college students while tabloids are dirt cheap, and massive anti-trust behavior in the software industry to name a few. Their hypocritical pleas like, "how will we make money without copyrights?" is like a mobster asking "how will I make money with out victims to extort?"

    The burdens of imposing copyrights might have been bearable a quarter century ago when the biggest issue was copy machines. But today in the information age there is no technical distinction between copyright content and free speech content. Information is so easy to copy and manipulate, there can be no "middle ground". Our society must make a choice: Our communications will either have to be monitored or free, our privacy will either have to intruded or protected. Our speech, writing, and free expression will either have to be abridged or unabridged. Any institution that has the power to control one, must have the power to control all. Copyrights are like a vine that will never stop growing to choke off our freedoms until we cut it off at the root!

    Consider parallels to other periods of transition like the industrial revolution:

    History teaches that during the 1800's there were many people who believed that the entire meaning and purpose of the industrial revolution was to leverage inventions like the cotton gin to expand their plantations for unlimited growth and profit. Ironically just the opposite was

    1. Re:A Bitter Protest Against Copyrights by RagingR2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If they said there was no incentive to do good things unless the government could choose your religion ... or they said there is no incentive to grow food, unless farmers could rip up your garden ... most people would see these as the awful values that they are. But if they say that there is no incentive to make beneficial or creative works without the power to restrict what people copy (copyrights), then all too many people just take it on faith. They don't even question it, as if incentive makes rights, as if society would fall apart without them.

      This is a very strange comparison really. In the first case it's quite logical that people would protest; after all something important gets taken from you namely your potatoes or your freedom of religion (excuse me for the hilarity but they were YOUR examples). In the second case, all that is harmed is the right to own everything, even that what belongs to others. Since when is that a basic human right?

      But just as much of the Renaissance happened without copyrights so should the information age.

      This comparison is even stranger. If you don't see the essential difference then let me explain. In the information age, large groups of society depend on selling copyrighted material for their living, such as music, movies and software. In the period of Renaissance, there weren't. I love all your utopian idea's about absolute freedom of speech and everything being owned by the community instead of individuals, but are *you* gonna feed all those people that lose their jobs?

      The truth is that for every artist or writer that has made it "big", there are unmentioned thousands whom copyrights haven't helped a bit, hindered, or even destroyed. Some are even barred or sued from sharing their own creations in public, while others die with the world never truly knowing their artistic genius as the mass media drowns them out. Most creators are far better off sharing and distributing their creations freely to make a reputation for themselves.

      Yeah, and there are probably even more who make a living *thanks to* copyrights. Where do you get all these vaguely statistic statements? I'd like to see some figures here. And by claiming that creators are better of sharing everything for free, I understand that you yourself aren't depending on it for a living?

      You have some nice utopian ideas man. But I'm affraid it's never gonna work out. Collective property has been tried before and it didn't work... people got lazy because there was no motivation. Besides, I really wonder how you want to make all this happen without ridding huge groups of people of their daily source of income.