Interesting use of the word 'imaginary'. What I would call imaginary is the idea that anyone can enforce software patents. It's worse than trying to enforce speeding. All you can do is pick off (wild made-up number) 1 out of 1,000 and hope it scares a few people. It simply doesn't have much chance of working. Once you connect digital content to the internet, it's already stolen, because you can't put IP in a box. Once it's out, you can't tell people to forget it or pretend they don't know it. Yes, you may have spent your time and money creating it, but now that it's out, it's out. DRM may make a dent in protecting IP, but it always gets cracked the next day (which is why it's hilarious to me that MS built DRM into the core of Vista). It also angers people who want to play their legitimately purchased music in an os like one of the BSD's or Linux. Yes, we definitely need copyright and patent reform, because right now, the lawyers are the biggest money-makers on software, since many software companies seem to be more interested in trying to make money in lawsuits and threats than with an actual business model. Or is that their business model? SCO? MS's FUD campaign? Hm... maybe I should get into this game.
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Interesting use of the word 'imaginary'. What I would call imaginary is the idea that anyone can enforce software patents. It's worse than trying to enforce speeding. All you can do is pick off (wild made-up number) 1 out of 1,000 and hope it scares a few people. It simply doesn't have much chance of working. Once you connect digital content to the internet, it's already stolen, because you can't put IP in a box. Once it's out, you can't tell people to forget it or pretend they don't know it. Yes, you may have spent your time and money creating it, but now that it's out, it's out. DRM may make a dent in protecting IP, but it always gets cracked the next day (which is why it's hilarious to me that MS built DRM into the core of Vista). It also angers people who want to play their legitimately purchased music in an os like one of the BSD's or Linux. Yes, we definitely need copyright and patent reform, because right now, the lawyers are the biggest money-makers on software, since many software companies seem to be more interested in trying to make money in lawsuits and threats than with an actual business model. Or is that their business model? SCO? MS's FUD campaign? Hm... maybe I should get into this game.